had
seen, to silence by any means in his power the talk, and yet half
aware that he would not be believed, when the other led him quickly
across the room, and pointed to the door that led to the corridor,
laying his hand lightly on his arm. Not knowing what he did, and still
lost in his miserable doubt, Linus obeyed the gentle touch. They
passed through the door and entered a long silent vaulted corridor,
with plain round arches; on one side there were presses which Linus
knew in himself were full of similar records; on the right were doors,
but all closed. They went on to the end; it was all lit with a solemn
holy light, the source of which Linus could not see, and the place
seemed to grow brighter as they advanced, brighter and cooler--for the
air of the room they had left was hot and still.

They went through a door, and Linus found himself in a long large
room, with arches open to the daylight. He looked through one of
those, and saw a landscape unfamiliar to him and strangely beautiful.
It was a great open flat country, full of lawns and thickets and
winding streams. It seemed to be uninhabited, and had a quiet peace
like a land in which the foot of man had never trodden; far away over
the plain he saw a range of blue hills, very beautiful and still, like
the hills a man may see in dreams. There were buildings there, for he
saw towers and walls, the whole lit with a clear and pearly light, but
it was all too distant for him to distinguish anything, and indeed
would have been hardly visible but for the surpassing brightness of
the air; the breeze that came in was fresh and fragrant, like the
breeze of dawn; and far away to the left he saw what looked like the
glint of light on a sea or some wide water, where the day seemed to be
breaking, and coming up with a tranquil joy.

Linus' heart was so lightened at this sweet place that he only dimly
wondered what this strange country was that lay so near the city where
he dwelt and yet in which he had never set foot. While he stood there
he heard a faint noise of wings, and a bird such as he had never seen
appeared flying; but beating its wings and stretching out its feet
like a bird coming home, it alighted for a moment on the parapet, and
seemed to Linus' eye like a dove, with sparkling lights upon its head
and neck, and with a patient eye; but this was only for a moment; as
if it had finished its work, it rose again in the air, and in an
instant was out of sight; but t