Nelatha had once said that
if one went to Paradise, one would see God and live, a God Who walked,
and talked, and could be seen, and Who was yet spirit.
Si'Wren was perplexed, and her thoughts ran to confusion. It was then
that the very real wisdom of Nelatha, which had come from L'acoci, now
betrayed its deeper truths, for Si'Wren remembered at the last that it
was sufficient in Nelatha's understanding as a lowly ignorant slave
girl, like Si'Wren herself, to compare the Invisible God to water,
which one could see, and yet remained invisible. For could not one hold
pure water in one's hand, and both see the water, and yet at one and
the same time, see right through it? And water, she remembered,
reflected all things faithfully. Thus might a righteous and holy God
reflect all men's souls to them in the hereafter, rewarding the good
with more good unto life, and the evil with more of their own evil unto
eternal wailing and damnation.
Thoughtfully, she turned to the window, the frame of which was
overgrown by clinging vines which stretched forth their profusion of
white-streaked, green ivy leaves in every direction. Looking out, she
saw a collection of dirty beggars sitting by the wayside in the street.
They were the maimed, the blind, the diseased, always to be found among
the countless throngs of city-goers and inhabitants.
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