“London!” he echoed. Then he smiled. “Oh yes, I think I know what you mean! There _was_ a city of that name somewhere about here once, but I don’t know exactly where! There’s nothing of it left now!” “Nothing!” exclaimed McNason, aghast. “Nothing!”--And the Goblin, pronouncing this word, waved its arms again, whereupon the Vision vanished,--“Nothing! Not a shred!--not a brick--not a bone! Not even a gold Coin! All the business--Gone!--all the pleasure--Gone!--all the scheming, plotting, lying, cheating, villainy, hatred and envy of one human creature contesting with the other--Gone! All the self-sufficiency, learning, little wisdom, and utter godlessness--Gone! Such will London be in two thousand years! And Nature will not miss it! Nature can do without it very well; Nature can do without you equally well, McNason! The sun will go on shining and the birds will go on singing none the less because You are wanting! Come along!--come along! In the spirit of One Timothy Two, time’s up! Off we go on our last journey!” Once more Josiah fell on his knees. “Spare me!” he cried--“Spare me! Surely I have suffered enough!” “Suffered? You? Oh Beelzebub!” And the Goblin began to elongate itself in its own peculiar and terror-striking style, “You’ve only just begun to know what it is to _feel_! You hard old scoundrel! _You_ talk of suffering!--why, you have lived till over sixty years of age, caring nothing at all for the troubles of others unless you could turn such troubles to your own advantage! As a child you were selfish,--as a boy you were selfish,--as a young man you were selfish,--as an old man you are selfish! You have crushed out hundreds of human lives in your factories as if they were mere ants swarming under your iron heel! You have cut down the expenses of your business to the narrowest, meanest, most pitiful margin,--you ‘sweat’ your labourers to such an extent that you know you dare not walk through your own workshops without a revolver in your pocket and a man on either side of you for protection--you are a living curse to the majority of those you employ--and they look for your death in the hope that after you are gone they will have a kinder master! And _you_ quote Shakespeare, do you? And the Bible! Oh hoo-roo! Come along! Time’s up, I tell you! And we’re not going far. Just a little see-saw ride to a Home Sweet Home! A last long Home! A Happy Home! Oh hoo-roo-oo-oo! One Timothy Two, and away we go!” * * * * *