"What does it matter how many people there are if you know none of them?"
he said.

"We all know each other," she answered him but then paused and hesitated
a little, because this was what had been said to her, and of herself she
was not assured of it, neither did she know at all how to deal with this
stranger, to whom she had not any commission. It seemed that he had no
one to care for him, and the little Pilgrim had a sense of compassion,
yet of trouble in her heart; for what could she say? And it was very
strange to her to see one who was not content here.

"Ah, but there should be some one to point out the way, and tell us which
is our circle, and where we ought to go," he said. And then he too was
silent for a while, looking about him as all were fain to do on their
first arrival, finding everything so strange. There were people coming in
at every moment, and some were met at the very threshold, and some went
away alone with peaceful faces, and there were many groups about talking
together in soft voices; but no one interrupted the other, and though so
many were there, each voice was as clear as if it had spoken alone, and
there was no tumult of sound as when many people assemble together in the
lower world.

The little Pilgrim wondered to find herself with the woman resting upon
her on one side, and the man seated silent on the other, neither having,
it appeared, any guide but only herself, who knew so little. How was she
to lead them in the paths which she did not know?--and she was exhausted
by the agitation of her struggle with the woman whom she felt to be her
charge. But in this moment of silence she had time to remember the face
of the Lord, when he gave her this commission, and her heart was