edestal of steps. And he wondered
whether the little shop was still by the side of it and whether its
window had been mended.

As the flying ship swept round the dome he observed other alterations.
The dome had been redecorated so as to give it a more solemn and
somewhat more ecclesiastical note; the ball was draped or destroyed,
and round the gallery, under the cross, ran what looked like a ring of
silver statues, like the little leaden images that stood round the hat
of Louis XI. Round the second gallery, at the base of the dome, ran a
second rank of such images, and Evan thought there was another round
the steps below. When they came closer he saw that they were figures
in complete armour of steel or silver, each with a naked sword, point
upward; and then he saw one of the swords move. These were not statues
but an armed order of chivalry thrown in three circles round the cross.
MacIan drew in his breath, as children do at anything they think utterly
beautiful. For he could imagine nothing that so echoed his own visions
of pontifical or chivalric art as this white dome sitting like a vast
silver tiara over London, ringed with a triple crown of swords.

As they went sailing down Ludgate Hill, Evan saw that the state of the
streets fully answered his companion's claim about the reintroduction
of order. All the old blackcoated bustle with its cockney vivacity
and vulgarity had disappeared. Groups of labourers, quietly but
picturesquely clad, were passing up and down in sufficiently large
numbers; but it required but a few mounted men to keep the streets in
order. The mounted men were not common policemen, but knights with spurs
and plume whose smooth and splendid armour glittered like diamond rather
than steel. Only in one place--at the corner of Bouverie Street--did
there appear to be a moment's confusion, and that was due to hurry
rather than resistance. But one old grumbling man did not get out of
the way quick enough, and the man on horseback struck him, not severely,
across the shoulders with the flat of his sword.

"The soldier had no business to do that," said MacIan, sharply. "The old
man was moving as quickly as he could."

"We attach great importance to discipline in the streets," said the man
in white, with a slight smile.

"Discipline is not so important as justice," said MacIan.

The other did not answer.

Then after a swift silence that took them out across St. James's Park,
he said: "The people mu