she met
the gracious Guide who had beckoned her to come, whispering in the
silence of her heart, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Not long
after Grace had begun to walk in this path, an event happened which
proved to her like the visit to the "Interpreter's House" in the
Pilgrim's story; but in order to explain its full eventfulness, we must
go back to tell of earlier days in her aunt's home.

On Sunday mornings Grace usually drove with her aunt to church in
decorous state. When Walter was at home he made one of the carriage
party, though generally under protest, declaring that it would be "ever
so much jollier to walk than to be bowled along in that horrid old
rumble," as he used irreverently to designate his aunt's rather antique
chariot. When they arrived at church, the children followed their aunt's
slow steps to one of the pews in the gallery, where Miss Hume used to
take the precautionary measure of separating them by sending Grace to
the top of the seat, and placing herself between the vivacious Walter
and his playmate. Notwithstanding this precaution, they generally
contrived to find comfortable recreative resources during the service,
bringing all their inventive energy to bear on creating new diversions
as each Sunday came round. There was always their Aunt Hume's fur cloak
to stroke the wrong way, if there was nothing more diverting within
reach; had it only been the cat, whose sentiments regarding a like
treatment of her fur were too well known to Walter, he felt that the
pleasure would have been greater. Sometimes, indeed, the amusements were
of a strictly mental nature, conducted in the "chambers of imagery."
Miss Hume would feel gratified by the stillness of posture and the
earnest gaze in her nephew's eyes. They were certainly not fixed
directly on the preacher, but surely the boy must be listening, or he
would never be so quiet. Grace, however, was in the secret, and knew
better. Walter had confided to her that he had got such "a jolly
make-believe" to think about in church. The great chandelier which hung
from the centre of the church ceiling, with its poles, and chains, and
brackets, was transformed in his imagination to a ship's mast and
rigging, where he climbed and swung, and performed marvellous feats,
also in imagination, be it understood. And so it happened that Grace
could guess where her brother's thoughts were when he sat gazing
dreamily at the huge gilded chandelier of the city churc