An Ambitious Man

After Mrs Connor had gone, Joy was for a long time in meditation, and

then turned in a mechanical manner to her delayed task. Her book of

"Impressions" lay on a table close at hand.

And as she took it up the leaves opened to the sentence she had

written three years before, after her talk with the rector about

Marah Adams.

"It seems to me I could not love a man who did not seek to lead me

higher; the moment he stood below me and asked me to descend, I

should realise he was to be pitied, not adored!"

She shut the book and fell on her knees in prayer; and as she prayed

a strange thing happened. The room filled with a peculiar mist, like

the smoke which is illuminated by the brilliant rays of the morning

sun; and in the midst of it a small square of intense rose-coloured

light was visible. This square grew larger and larger, until it

assumed the size and form of a man, whose face shone with immortal

glory. He smiled and laid his hand on Joy's head. "Child, awake,"

he said, and with these words vast worlds dawned upon the girl's

sight. She stood above and apart from her grosser body, untrammelled

and free; she saw long vistas of lives in the past through which she

had come to the present; she saw long vistas of lives in the future

through which she must pass to gain the experience which would lead

her back to God. An ineffable peace and serenity enveloped her. The

divine Presence seemed to irradiate the place in which she stood--she

felt herself illuminated, transfigured, sanctified by the holy flame

within her.

When she came back to the kneeling form by the couch, and rose to her

feet, all the aspect of life had changed for her.