ignorance she had done
something wrong. After that there came a great joy into her heart. "Oh,
how happy you have made me!" she cried. "I am glad with all my heart for
you and your son--" Then she paused a little and added, "But you said he
was still there."

"It is true; for the land of darkness is very confusing, they tell me,
for want of the true light, and our dear friends the angels are not
permitted to help: but if one follows them, that shows the way. You may
be in that land yet on your way hither. It was very hard to understand at
first," said the painter; "there are some sketches I could show you. No
one has ever made a picture of it, though many have tried; but I could
show you some sketches--if you wish to see."

To this the little Pilgrim's look was so plain an answer that the painter
laid down his pallet and his brush, and left his work, to show them to
her as he had promised. They went down from the balcony and along the
street until they came to one of the great palaces, where many were
coming and going. Here they walked through some vast halls, where
students were working at easels, doing every kind of beautiful work: some
painting pictures, some preparing drawings, planning houses and palaces.
The Pilgrim would have liked to pause at every moment to see one lovely
thing or another; but the painter walked on steadily till he came to a
room which was full of sketches, some of them like pictures in little,
with many figures,--some of them only a representation of a flower, or
the wing of a bird. "These are all the master's," he said; "sometimes the
sight of them will be enough to put something great into the mind of
another. In this corner are the sketches I told you of." There were two
of them hanging together upon the wall, and at first it seemed to the
little Pilgrim as if they represented the flames and fire of which she
had read, and this made her shudder for the moment. But then she saw that
it was a red light like a stormy sunset, with masses of clouds in the
sky, and a low sun very fiery and dazzling, which no doubt to a hasty
glance must have looked, with its dark shadows and high lurid lights,
like the fires of the bottomless pit. But when you looked down you saw
the reality what it was. The country that lay beneath was full of
tropical foliage, but with many stretches of sand and dry plains, and in
the foreground was a town, that looked very prosperous and crowded,
though the figures were very