f around the
earth.

Into every Western human eye had come strange and subtle shadows which
did not depart with moments of forgetful mirth, intervals of
self-absorption, hours filled with familiar interests--the passions,
hopes, perplexities of those years which were now no more.

Those years of yesterdays! A vast and depthless cleft already divided
them from to-day. They seemed as remote as dusty centuries--those days
of an ordered and tranquil world--those days of little obvious faiths
unshattered--even those days of little wars, of petty local strifes,
of an almost universal calm and peace and trust in brotherhood and in
the obligations of civilisation.

Familiar yesterday had vanished, its creeds forgotten. It was already
decades away, and fading like a legend in the ever-increasing glare of
the red and present moment.

And the month of May seemed strange, and its soft skies and sun seemed
out of place in a world full of dying--a world heavy with death--a
western world aloof from the raging hell beyond the seas, yet already
tense under the distant threat of three continents in flames--and all
aquiver before the deathly menace of that horde of blood-crazed demons
still at large, still unsubdued, still ranging the ruins of the planet
which they had so insanely set on fire.

Entire nations were still burning beyond the ocean; other nations had
sunk into cinders. Over the Eastern seas the furnace breath began to
be felt along the out-thrust coast lines of the Western World. Inland,
not yet; but every seaward city became now conscious of that first
faint warning wave of heat from hell. Millions of ears strained to
catch the first hushed whisper of the tumult. Silent in its suspense
the Great Republic listened. Only the priesthood of the deaf and
wooden gods continued voluble. But Israel had already begun to lift up
its million eyes; and its ancient faith began to glow again; and its
trust was becoming once more a living thing--the half-forgotten trust
of Israel in that half-forgotten Lord, who, in the beginning, had been
their helper and their shield.

* * * * *

Through the open studio door came Dulcie Soane. The Prophet followed
at her slender heels, gently waving an urbane tail.

* * * * *

After his first smiling greeting--he always rose, advanced, and took
her hand with that pleasant appearance of formality so adored by
femininity, youthful or