Part 37 (1/2)
He stopped her by a gesture, rising from where he sat and extending a hand of warning and authority.
”Child, beware what you say!” and his voice had a ring of sternness in its mellow tone--”If I know what you think I know, on what ground do you suppose I have built my knowledge? Only on that faith which you call 'conventional'--that faith which has never been understood by the world's majority! That faith which teaches of the G.o.d-in-Man, done to death by the Man WITHOUT G.o.d in him!--and who, nevertheless, by the spiritual strength of a resurrection from the grave, proves that there is no death but only continuous renewal of life! This is no mere 'convention' of faith,--no imaginary or traditional tale--it is pure scientific fact. The virginal conception of divinity in woman, and the transfiguration of manhood, these things are true--and the advance of scientific discovery will prove them so beyond all denial. We have held the faith, AS IT SHOULD BE HELD, for centuries,--and it has led us, and continues to lead us, to all we know.”
”We?” queried Morgana, softly--”WE--of the Church?--or of the Brazen City?”
He looked at her for some moments without speaking. His tall fine figure seemed more than ever stately and imposing--and his features expressed a calm a.s.surance and dignity of thought which gave them additional charm.
”Your question is bold!” he said--”Your enterprising spirit stops at nothing! You have learned much--you are resolved to learn more!
Well,--I cannot prevent you,--nor do I see any reason why I should try!
You are a resolved student,--you are also a woman:--a woman different to ordinary women and set apart from ordinary womanhood. So I say to you 'We of the Brazen City'--if you will! For more than three thousand years 'we' have existed--'we' have studied, 'we' have discovered--'we'
have known. 'We,' the selected offspring of all the race that ever were born,--'we,' the pure blood of the earth,--'we,' the progenitors of the world TO BE,--'we' have lived, watching temporary civilisations rise and fall,--seeing generations born and die, because, like weeds, they have grown without any root of purpose save to smother their neighbours and destroy. 'We' remain as commanded, waiting for the full declaration and culmination of those forces which are already advancing to the end,--when the 'Kingdom' comes!”
Morgana moved close to him, and looked up at his grave, dark face beseechingly.
”Then why are you here?” she asked--”If you know,--if you were ever in the 'Brazen City' how did it happen that you left it? How could it happen?”
He smiled down into the jewel-blue of her clear eyes.
”Little child!” he said--”Brilliant soul, that rejoiced in the perception that gave you what you called 'the inside of a sun-ray,'--you, for whom the things which interest men and women of the moment are mere toys of poor invention--you, of all others, ought to know that when the laws of the universe are understood and followed, there can be no fetters on the true liberty of the subject? IF I were ever in the 'Brazen City'--mind! I say 'if'--there could be nothing to prevent my leaving it if I chose--”
She interrupted him by the uplifting of a hand.
”I was told”--she said slowly--”by a Voice that spoke to me--that if I went there I should have to stay there!”
”No doubt!” he answered--”For love would keep you!”
”Love!” she echoed.
”Even so! Such love as you have never dreamed of, dear soul weighted with millions of gold! Love!--the only force that pulls heaven to earth and binds them together!”
”But YOU--you--if you were in the Brazen City--”
”If!” he repeated, emphatically.
”If--yes! if”--she said--”If you were there, love did not hold YOU?”
”No!”
There was a silence. The suns.h.i.+ne burned down on the ancient grey flagstones of the cloister, and two gorgeous b.u.t.terflies danced over the climbing roses that hung from the arches in festal wreaths of pink and white. A luminance deeper than that of the sun seemed to encircle the figures standing together--the one so elfin, light and delicate,--the other invested with a kind of inward royalty expressing itself outwardly in stateliness of look and bearing. Something mysteriously suggestive of super-humanity environed them; a spirit and personality higher than mortal. After some minutes Aloysius spoke again--
”The city is not a 'Brazen' City”--he said--”It has been called so by travellers who have seen its golden towers glistening afar off in a sudden refraction of light lasting but a few seconds. Gold often looks like bra.s.s and bra.s.s like gold, in human ent.i.ties as in architectural results.” He paused--then went on slowly and impressively--”Surely you remember,-you MUST remember, that it is written 'The city lieth four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth. The wall thereof is according to the measure of a man--that is, of the Angel.
And the city is of pure gold.' Does that give you no hint of the measure of a man, that is, of the Angel?--of the 'new heavens and the new earth,' the old things being pa.s.sed away? Dear child, you have studied deeply--you have adventured far and greatly!--continue your quest, but do not forget to take your guiding Light, the Faith which half the world and more ignores!”
She sprang to him impulsively and caught his hands.
”Oh, you must help me!” she cried--”You must teach me--I want to know what YOU know!--”
He held her gently and with reverent tenderness.