the wants of the world that the very pigeons flutter in to homes
among its rafters. The air-beats of their wings heighten the hush
they would seem to break, and only enhance the sacred quiet of the
nave,--a stillness such that the coppers of the faithful fall with
exaggerated ring through the lattice of the almsbox, while the
swiftly mumbled prayers of the givers rise in all simplicity straight
to heaven.

In and about the courtyard live the sacred doves, and he who will may
have their company for the spreading of a feast of crumbs. And the
rush of their wings, as they descend to him from the sky, seems like
drawing some strange benediction down.



V.

No.

My quest still carrying me westward along the line of the new railway,
I took the train again, and in the compartment of the carriage I found
two other travelers. They were a typical Japanese couple in middle
life, and in something above middle circumstances. He affected
European clothes in part, while she still clung to the costume of her
ancestors. Both were smoking,--she her little pipe, and he the
fashionable cigarette. Their mutual relations were those of substance
to shadow. She followed him inevitably, and he trod on her feelings
regardless of them. She had been pretty when he took her to wife,
and though worn and withered she was happy still. As for him, he was
quite satisfied with her, as he would have been quite satisfied