Page:The Soul of a Bishop.djvu/283

Rh He took the drawing from her. It represented a building, manifestly an enormous building, consisting largely of two great, deeply fluted towers flanking a vast archway approached by a long flight of steps. Between the towers appeared a dome. It was as if the Mosque of Saint Sophia had produced this offspring in a mésalliance with the cathedral of Wells. Its enormity was made manifest by the minuteness of the large automobiles that were driving away in the foreground after "setting down." "Here is the plan," she said, thrusting another sheet upon him before he could fully take in the quality of the design. "The g'eat Hall is to be pe'fectly 'ound, no aisle, no altar, and in lettas of sapphiah, 'God is ev'ywhe'.'"

She added with a note of solemnity, "It will hold th'ee thousand people sitting down."

"But!" said Scrope.

"The'e's a sort of g'andeur," she said. "It's young Venable's wo'k. It's his fi'st g'ate oppo'tunity."

"But—is this to go on that little site in Aldwych?"

"He says the' isn't 'oom the'!" she explained. "He wants to put it out at Golda's G'een."

"But—if it is to be this little simple chapel we proposed, then wasn't our idea to be central?"

"But if the' isn't 'oom!" she said—conclusively.

"And isn't this—isn't it rather a costly undertaking, rather more costly"

"That doesn't matta. I'm making heaps and heaps of