Once more she looked, and last of all, breathing ineffable
love, came her lost darling, Anthony himself.
From heart to heart flashed their swift thoughts, like lightnings from
cloud to cloud, till all her being was a very sea of joy. Now the great
room was full of presences, and now the curtains were gone and all space
beyond was full of presences, and from that glorious company of a sudden
there arose a song of welcome and beneath the burden of its sweetness
she swooned to sleep.
Barbara dwelt in joy with those she loved and learned many things. She
learned that this sweet new life of hers was what she had fashioned on
the earth with her prayers and strivings; that the seeds of love and
suffering sown down in the world's rank soil had here blossomed to
this perfect flower. Now she knew what was meant by the saying that the
kingdom of Heaven is within you, and by the other saying that as man
sows so shall he reap. She learned that in this world beyond the world,
and that yet itself was but a rung in the ladder of many universes, up
which ladder all souls must climb to the ultimate judgment, there was
sorrow as well as bliss, there were both suffering and delight.
Here the sinful were brought face to face with the naked horror of their
sins, and from it fled wailing and aghast.
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