mb is temple of it, and the citee hath not nede of
sunne neither moone that thei schine in it, for the cleerite of god
schal lightne it, and the lombe is the lanterne of it, and the kyngis of
erthe schulen bringe her glorie and onour into it. And the ghatis of it
schulen not be closid bi dai, and nyght schal not be there, and thei
schulen bringe the glorie and onour of folkis into it, neither ony man
defouled and doynge abomynacioun and leesyng [lying] schal entre into
it, but thei that ben writun in the book of lyf and of the lombe."

When the soft, quiet voice ceased, it was like the sudden cessation of
sweet music to the enchanted ears of little Maude. The child was very
imaginative, and in her mental eyes the City had grown as she listened,
till it now lay spread before her--the streets of gold, and the gates of
pearl, and the foundations of precious stones. Of any thing typical or
supernatural she had not the faintest idea. In her mind it was at once
settled that the City was London, and yet was in some dreamy way
Jerusalem; for of any third city Maude knew nothing. The King, of
course, had his Palace there; and a strong desire sprang up in the
child's mind to know whether the royal mistress, who was to her a kind
of far-off fairy queen, had a palace there also. If so--but no! it was
too good to be true that Maude would ever go to wash the golden pans and
diamond dishes which must be used in that City.

"Mistress!" said Maude to her new friend, after a short silence, during
which both were thinking deeply.

The lady brought her eyes down to the child from the sky, where they had
been fixed, and smiled a reply to the appeal.

"Would you tell me, of your grace, whether our Lady mistresshood's
graciousness hath in yonder city a dwelling?"

Maude wondered exceedingly to see tears slowly gather in the sapphire
eyes.

"God grant it, little maid!" was, to her, the incomprehensible answer.

"And if so were, Mistress, counteth your Madamship that our said
puissant Lady should ever lack her pans cleansed yonder?"

"Wherefore, little maid?" asked the lady very gently.

"Because, an' I so might, I would fain dwell in yonder city," said
Maude, with glittering eyes.

"And thy work is to cleanse pans?"

Little Maude sighed heavily. "Ay, yonder is my work."

"Which thou little lovest, as methinks."

"Should you love it, Mistress, think you?" demanded Maude.

"Truly, little maid, that should I not," answered