The room was empty save for herself!
With a cry she started to her feet. They could not have gone out of the door for her chair had all the time stood right in the way. What was this then that had happened?
Her breath came hot and laboured. Her eye-balls bulged horribly! A reeling sickness began to steal over her. She dropped back, terrified, in her chair, gasping:—
“Zillah said this morning “The Christ will come soon, suddenly, then those who are His, will be taken, unseen, unheard, from the world!”
With a sharp, anguished cry, she let her bulging, terror-filled eyes sweep the room again as she cried:—
“And my children, too!”
Her eyes were tearless, but dry, hard sobs shook all her frame.
The next moment a kind of frenzy seized her. She rushed to the front door, and into the street. She would find out if any one else was missing.
A little crowd was on the pavement. A hansom cab stood by the curb. The fare was standing on the front board. He was a minister of some kind. He wore a M.B. waistcoat, a clerical collar, a soft, wide-brimmed, black felt hat. He glanced up at the driver’s seat, as he cried:—