They turned a corner, and suddenly the Capitol on the throne of its imperial hill loomed a grand constellation in the heavens! Another look, and it seemed a huge bonfire against the background of the dark skies. Every window in its labyrinths of marble, from the massive base to its crowning statue of Freedom, gleamed and flashed with light—more than ten thousand jets poured their rays through its windows, besides the innumerable lights that circled the mighty dome within and without.
Margaret stopped, and Phil felt her soft hand grip his arm with sudden emotion.
"Isn't it sublime!" she whispered.
"Glorious!" he echoed.
But he was thinking of the pressure of her hand on his arm and the subtle tones of her voice. Somehow he felt that the light came from her eyes. He forgot the Capitol and the surging crowds before the sweeter creative wonder silently growing in his soul.
"And yet," she faltered, "when I think of what all this means for our people at home—their sorrow and poverty and ruin—you know it makes me faint."
Phil's hand timidly sought the soft one resting on his arm and touched it reverently.
"Believe me, Miss Margaret, it will be all for the best in the end. The South will yet rise to a nobler life than she has ever lived in the past. This is her victory as well as ours."
"I wish I could think so," she answered.
They passed the City Hall and saw across its front, in giant letters of fire thirty feet deep, the words:
