in the name of religion; when his
longing after a living God is met with the offer of a paltry escape
from hell, how is the creature to live! It is God we want, not heaven;
his righteousness, not an imputed one, for our own possession;
remission, not letting off; love, not endurance for the sake of
another, even if that other be the one loveliest of all.

They turned from the sunset and made their way to the chimney-stack.
There once more Donal set up his ladder. He tied the clock-weight to
the end of his cord, dropped it in, and with a little management got it
through the wires. It went down and down, gently lowered, till the cord
was all out, and still it would go.

"Do run and get some more," said Arctura.

"You do not mind being left alone?"

"No--if you will not be long."

"I will run," he said--and run he did, for she had scarcely begun to
feel the loneliness when he returned panting.

He took the end she had been holding, tied on the fresh cord he had
brought, and again lowered away. As he was beginning to fear that after
all he had not brought enough, the weight stopped, resting, and drew no
more.

"If only we had eyes in that weight," said Arctura, "like the snails at
the end of their horns!"

"We might have greased the bottom of the weight," said Donal, "as they
do the lead when they want to know what kind of bottom there is to the
sea: it might have brought up ashes. If it will not go any farther, I
will mark the string at the mouth, and draw it up."

He moved the weight up and down a little; it rested still, and he drew
it up.

"Now we must mark off it the height of the chimney above the parapet
wall," he said; "and then I will lower the weight towards the court
below, until this last knot comes to the wall: the weight will then
show us on the outside how far down the house it went inside.--Ah, I
thought so!" he went on, looking over after the weight; "--only to the
first floor, or thereabouts!--No, I think it is lower!--But anyhow, my
lady, as you can see, the place with which the chimney, if chimney it
be, communicates, must be somewhere about the middle of the house, and
perhaps is on the first floor; we can't judge very well looking down
from here, and against a spot where are no windows. Can you imagine
what place it might be?"

"I cannot," answered Arctura; "but I could go into every room on that
floor without anyone seeing me."

"Then I will let the weight down the chimney again, and l