y seconds apart. He had a little clock on the
table. Twenty minutes passed, and half an hour. I was a little
disappointed, really, that the statue wasn't going to move; but Benlian
knew best, and it was filling quietly up with him instead. Then I thought
of those zigzag bunches of lightning they draw on the electric-belt
advertisements, and I was rather glad after all that the statue _wasn't_
going to move. It would have been a little cheap, that ... vulgar, in a
sense.... He was breathing a little more sharply now, as if in pain, but
his eyes never moved. A dog was howling somewhere, and I hoped that the
hooting of the tugs wouldn't disturb Benlian....

Nearly an hour had passed when, all of a sudden, I pushed my chair
farther away and cowered back, gnawing my fingers, very frightened.
Benlian had suddenly moved. He'd set himself forward in his chair, and he
seemed to be strangling. His mouth was wide open, and he began to make
long harsh "_Aaaaah-aaaah's_!" I shouldn't have thought passing yourself
was such agony....

And then I gave a scream--for he seemed to be thrusting himself back in
his chair again, as if he'd changed his mind and didn't want to pass
himself at all. But just you ask anybody: When you get yourself just over
half-way passed, the other's dragged out of you, and you can't help
yourself. His "_Aaaaahs_!" became so loud and horrid that I shut my eyes
and stopped my ears.... Minutes that lasted; and then there came a high
dinning that I couldn't shut out, and all at once the floor shook with a
heavy thump. When all was still again I opened my eyes.

His chair had overturned, and he lay in a heap beside it.

I called "Benlian!" but he didn't answer....

He'd passed beautifully; quite dead. I looked up at the statue. It was
just as Benlian had said--it didn't open its eyes, nor speak, nor
anything like that. Don't you believe chaps who tell you that statues
that have been passed into do that; they don't.

But instead, in a blaze and flash and shock, I knew now for the first
time what a glorious thing that statue was! Have you ever seen anything
for the first time like that? If you have, you never see very much
afterwards, you know. The rest's all piffle after that. It was like
coming out of fog and darkness into a split in the open heavens, my
statue was so transfigured; and I'll bet if you'd been there you'd have
clapped your hands, as I did, and chucked the tablecloth over the Benlian
on the floo