nature is its deep and vital
indifference to anything except what can directly give it delight, and
that these souls, for all their amazing subtlety and discrimination, had
very little hold on life at all, except on its outer details and
superficial harmonies; and that they were all very young in experience,
and like shallow waters, easily troubled and easily appeased; and that
therefore they were being dealt with like children, and allowed full
scope for all their little sensitive fancies, until the time should come
for them to go further yet. Of course they were one degree older than
the people who in the world had been really immersed in what may be
called solid interests and serious pursuits--science, politics,
organisation, warfare, commerce--all these spirits were very youthful
indeed, and they were, I suppose, in some very childish nursery of God.
But what first bewildered me was the finding of the earthly proportions
of things so strangely reversed, the serious matters of life so utterly
set aside, and so much made of the things which many people take no sort
of trouble about, as companionships and affections, which are so often
turned into a matter of mere propinquity and circumstance. But of this
I shall have to speak later in its place.

Now it is difficult to describe the time I spent in the land of delight,
because it was all so unlike the life of the world, and yet was so
strangely like it. There was work going on there, I found, but the
nature of it I could not discern, because that was kept hidden from me.
Men and women excused themselves from our company, saying they must
return to their work; but most of the time was spent in leisurely
converse about things which I confess from the first did not interest
me. There was much wit and laughter, and there were constant games and
assemblies and amusements. There were feasts of delicious things, music,
dramas. There were books read and discussed; it was just like a very
cultivated and civilised society. But what struck me about the people
there was that it was all very restless and highly-strung, a perpetual
tasting of pleasures, which somehow never pleased. There were two people
there who interested me most. One was a very handsome and courteous
man, who seemed to desire my company, and spoke more freely than the
rest; the other a young man, who was very much occupied with the girl,
my companion, and made a great friendship with her. The elder of the
two, fo