The End of a Coil

by Susan Warner

"Certainly!" said Dolly, turning upon him. "As certainly as they wore that armour once."

"Where, then?"

"I can't tell you that. The Bible and the ancients call it Hades—the place of departed spirits."

"But here are their shields,—and folks come and look at them."

"Yes."

"It gives one a sort of queer feeling."

"Yes," said Dolly. "One of those helmets may have belonged to a conqueror, and another may have been unclasped from a dead gladiator's head. And it don't matter much to either of them now."

"It seems as if nothing in the world mattered much," said Rupert.

"It don't!" said Dolly quickly. "'The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.'"

"You think such a one is better off than the rest?" said Rupert. "How? You say the rest are living somewhere."