The white city in the mystical light looked like an enchanted city.

It was so still that the very houses looked asleep.
"It is a beautiful land," said the doctor.
"It is worthy of freedom," answered Houston.

Then he went with long, swinging steps down the garden, and into the shadows beyond, and Worth turned in and closed the door.
He had been watching for this very hour for twenty years; and yet he found himself wholly unprepared for it.

Like one led by confused and uncertain thoughts, he went about the room mechanically locking up his papers, and the surgical instruments he valued so highly.

As he did so he perceived the book he had been reading when Houston entered.