"Dear lady, what do you know of my vocation?" he asked--"Will you teach it to me? No!--I am sure you will not try! Listen now!--as you all give me permission--let me tell you of certain people who once 'went with the time'--and decided to stop en route, and are still at the stopping-place. Perhaps some of you who travel far and often, have heard of the Brazen City?"
Each one looked at the other enquiringly, but with no responsive result.
"Those who visit the East know of it"--went on Aloysius--"And some say they have seen a glimpse of its shining towers and cupolas in the far distance. However this may be, tradition declares that it exists, and that it was founded by St. John, the 'beloved disciple.' You will recall that when Our Lord was asked when and how John should die He answered--'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' So--as we read--the rumour went forth that John was the one disciple for whom there should be no death. And now--to go on with the legend--it is believed by many, that deep in the as yet unexplored depths of the deserts of Egypt--miles and miles over rolling sand-waves which once formed the bed of a vast ocean, there stands a great city whose roofs and towers are seemingly of brass,--a city barricaded and built in by walls of brass and guarded by gates of brass. Here dwells a race apart--a race of beautiful human creatures who have discovered the secret of perpetual youth and immortality on this earth. They have seen the centuries come and go,--the flight of time touches them not,--they only await the day when the whole world will be free to them--that 'world to come' which is not made for the 'many,' but the 'few.' All the discoveries of our modern science are known to them--our inventions are their common everyday appliances--and on the wings of air and rays of light they hear and know all that goes on in every country. Our wars and politics are no more to them than the wars and politics of ants in ant-hills,--they have passed beyond all trivialities such as these. They have discovered the secret of life's true enjoyment--and--they enjoy!"
"That's a fine story if true!" said Colonel Boyd-"But all the same, it must be dull work living shut up in a city with nothing to do,--doomed to be young and to last for ever!"