was seventy-two years old, cataract overtook me. A
successful operation restored my sight, but the doctors warned me that
if I would keep it, all work must be abandoned. Since then I have more
or less cumbered the ground. But for many friends who are good to me,
life would be intolerable. Heaven blessed my labours, and gave me a
frugal wife; I have all the comforts I need and more blessings than I
deserve. This child is my favourite little great-granddaughter, and is
often my charming companion to these cloisters. A dreary scene,
gentlemen, for a child of tender years, but they read a solemn and
wholesome lesson. Unconsciously she imbibes their influence. They tell
her, as I do, that life is not all pleasure; that as these ancient
architects left beautiful traces and outlines behind them, so we must
build up our lives stage by stage, taking care that the outlines shall
be true and straight, the imperishable record pure and beautiful. For
every one of us comes the placing of the keystone, with its momentous
_Finis_. But, blessed be Heaven, as surely beneath it appears the
promised _Resurgam_."

We walked round the cloisters together, and for a full hour this
patriarch, with the support of our arm, charmed us with reminiscences of
Barcelona, descriptions of the lovely monuments of Spain he had visited
in the course of his long life. In spite of his years, his memory still
seemed keen and vivid, his mind clear. He had not passed into that
saddest of conditions a mental wreck.

"And I pray Heaven to call me hence ere such a fate overtake me," he
said, in answer to our remark upon his admirable recollection. "Whilst
memory lasts and friends are kind, life may be endured. I possess my
soul in patience."

We parted and went our several ways, leaving the little cloisters to
solitude and the ghosts that haunted them. The streets of Barcelona
grated upon us after our late encounter. It was returning to very
ordinary life after the refined and delightful atmosphere of the past
ages. We crossed the Rambla, and entering a side street quickly reached
the cathedral, which became more and more a world's wonder and glory as
we grew familiar with it, an unspeakable delight. In this little City of
Refuge we again for a time lost ourselves in celestial visions. In this
inspired atmosphere all earthly influences and considerations fell away;
sorrow and sighing were non-existent: a millennium of happiness reigned,
where all was piety and