ve got. Is it
damp, or what?"

"Don't you know? these dark ones come from Herculaneum, and were locked
up in lava; the others, the greenish ones, are from Pompeii, where the
covering was lighter and they were exposed to damp, as you say."

"Well, I suppose they are curious, being so ancient."

"Rupert, they are most beautiful."

But Rupert as well as Dolly found a mine of interest in the Greek and
gladiatorial armour and weapons.

"It makes my head turn!" said Rupert.

"What?"

"Why, it is eighteen hundred years ago. To think that men lived and
fought with those helmets and weapons and shields, so long back! and
now here are the shields and helmets, but where are the men?"

Dolly said nothing.

"Do you think they are anywhere?"

"Certainly!" said Dolly, turning upon him. "As certainly as they wore
that armour once."

"Where, then?"

"I can't tell you that. The Bible and the ancients call it Hades--the
place of departed spirits."

"But here are their shields,--and folks come and look at them."

"Yes."

"It gives one a sort of queer feeling."

"Yes," said Dolly. "One of those helmets may have belonged to a
conqueror, and another may have been unclasped from a dead gladiator's
head. And it don't matter much to either of them now."

"It seems as if nothing in the world mattered much," said Rupert.

"It don't!" said Dolly quickly. "'The world passeth away, and the lust
thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'"

"You think such a one is better off than the rest?" said Rupert. "How?
You say the rest are living somewhere."

"Existing."

"What's the difference?"

"Just all the difference between light and darkness;--or between life
and death. You would not call it living, if all joy and hope were gone
out of existence; you would wish that existence could end."

"How do you know all about it so well, Miss Dolly?" the young man asked
a little incredulously.

"Rupert, it begins in this world. I know a little of the difference
now. I never was where all joy and hope were gone out of
existence--though I have seen trouble," said Dolly gravely. "But I _do_
know that nothing in this world is so good as the love of Christ; and
that without Him life is not life."

"People seem to have a good time without it," said Rupert.

"For a little. How would they be, do you think, if all their pleasures
were taken away?--their money, and all their money gets for them;
friends and all?"

"Wre