“Come,” said the figure in a voice plaintive, yet sweet. Unhesitatingly I grasped her hand, and straightway we were flying through the air. The night was inky and awful. The wind moaned dismally as it hurled upon us the huge masses of clouds, threatening and demon-like, and naught but implicit confidence in my conductor preserved me from a sense of loneliness and of desolation, from an utter horror like to that of death. Long thus we flew, outstripping the swift pursuing blasts, until day bloomed like a rank marsh flower. A gloomy, dismal day. Beyond the vision on either side, a mighty pile stretched; above, it was lost in the low-lying clouds, reaching, perhaps, to the very skies I thought. Grand the design appeared, yet grand rather in what it should have been than in what it was; for here the walls stood all in moss-grown ruins, as though shaken by some overwhelming earthquake shock, here still unfinished. Everywhere, besides, had been inwrought marble blocks and shattered columns from the ruins that strewed the plain for leagues around. All about were men engaged upon the palace; but though some were earnestly endeavoring to prop the leaning walls, or to set the great stones firm and true, some, I thought, strove only to cover the gapping seams with useless tinsel, while some were even battering with rams whatever places were the weakest. Stumbling beneath an arch whose very keystone threatened to drop upon us as we went, and then through dark and ruinous passages, we entered. We emerged into a great hall, whose gaudy, gilded splendor could not long blind the eyes to the bare foundations protruding all about and crumbling in decay. Here a preacher was describing the true Christmas, yet, though his words rang with wondrously fervid eloquence, they met but little response in the faces of his congregation. Unconsciously my guide approached the speaker, while her splendor became even more intense, until it shone almost like the sun, and yet it might be gazed upon, so soft and friendly was it. But even as it blazed most gloriously it faded, and with a halfstifled sob the angel turned away. To my questioning glance she made reply, “I am Love, and as I come where love is my effulgence grows more bright.”