et below. I marvel
that I hear so little stir of voices. But the walls are thick, and
we are high up. Go and see what is passing below, and bring me word
again."

Dinah was not loth to obey this behest, being terribly anxious to
know what was happening around them. Neither by word nor by sign
would she add to the anxieties of Lady Desborough, knowing how much
might depend upon her calmness if the chance of rescue offered
itself; but she herself began to entertain grave fears for the
safety of this house, wedged in, as it appeared to her to be,
between masses of blazing buildings.

Running up to the top attics of the house, which commanded views
almost every way, the sight which greeted her eyes was indeed
appalling. The whole mass of St. Paul's grand edifice was alight,
and the flames were rushing up the walls like fiery serpents whilst
the dull roar of the conflagration was like the booming of the
breakers on an iron-bound coast. Grand and terrible was the sight
presented by that vast sea of flame, which extended eastward as far
as the eyes could see. It was more brilliantly light now, in the
middle of the night, than in the brightest summer noontide,
although the blood-red glare was terrible in its intensity, and
brought to Dinah's spirit, with a shudder of horror, a vision of
the bottomless pit with its eternal fires.

But without pausing to linger to watch the awful grandeur of the
burning cathedral, she hastily passed from attic to attic to see
how matters were going in other quarters, and she soon discovered,
to her dismay and anxiety, that the flames had crept around the
little wedge-like block of buildings in which this mansion stood,
and that they were literally ringed round by fire. By some caprice,
or perhaps owing to its solidity of structure, this small
three-cornered block, containing about three good houses, had not
yet ignited; but the hungry flames were creeping on apace, and, as
it seemed to Dinah, from all sides. As she took in this fact, it
seemed to her that help could never reach them now, and that all
they could do was to strive to meet death with as calm and bold a
spirit as they could, commending their souls to God, and trusting
that He would raise up their bodies at the last day, even though
they might be consumed to ashes in the midst of this burning fire.

What was that noise? Surely a shout from below. Dinah started, and
fled hastily down the staircase. In another moment she heard more