So on around: a thousand scenes, and all delightful, delicate yet clear, country and city all in perfection spread out everywhere. And each sphere was linked to each with garlands of lights, so that the nimble spirit crossed on them, a perfect path of beauty. Rosalie looked and breathed a sigh of admiration. Then her eyes travelled to the path which they were crossing. The steep part had been passed. There now remained only a lesser portion, and that sloped gently down. This remaining part was free from danger. Pillars of light garlanded with flowers guarded the sides. The horses, unwearied with the night’s long race, moved slowly towards this nearing country, over whose waking sky the bright dawn was spreading wings of glory, with silver flutings right east to west. The descent led to a regal city, where nothing mean or sordid, no toil and tribulation, no anxious care or killing sorrow, no oppression, no dark deeds, no foul disease, no hardened priests or creeds had ever come. But all was God, the essence of immortal greatness. And to this city came Rosalie, led by him whom some had called on Lucifram the Master. And being all tired with the journey, Rosalie fell asleep just as they were entering the gates. For no traveller from a darker sphere can enter there unweary. The soft air, too strong for them, wafts the frail form to tender sleep, that it undergo the great and immortal change. The sound of laughter and welcome, Heaven’s truest music of joy, and then for us a silence. * * * * * So ends a little chapter in the life of Lucifram. A chapter that bore indirectly upon the Serpent, and helped gradually to its undoing. But that’s another tale. THE END _Printed by Cowan & Co., Ltd., Perth._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE SERF A HISTORICAL NOVEL BY C. RANGER-GULL _Author of “The Hypocrite,” “Back to Lilac Land,” etc._ THIRD EDITION—_SIX SHILLINGS_ =Rock.=—“A brilliant piece of romance work.” Mr. A. T. QUILLER-COUCH in the =Daily News=.—“A novel of uncommon merit; a historical novel of a period rarely attempted by fiction.” =Observer.=—“Mr. Ranger-Gull possesses a brilliant imagination, original thought, and an able pen. His style is clear and forcible, and some of the passages in this, his latest story, are full of pathos.” =Daily Chronicle.=—“Mr. Ranger-Gull deserves the warmest praise, and willingly do we accord it.... The story he has provided, with so carefully studied environment, is one that is strong in human interest, and told with considerable dramatic power.”