Surely that magnificent and time-honoured structure would not be permitted to perish without some attempt to save it! Dinah went out at midday for a mouthful of air, leaving Janet in charge of the sick lady.

She turned her steps towards the great edifice towering up in all its grandeur towards the sunny sky.

It was hard indeed to believe that it could succumb to the devouring element, so solid and unconsumable it looked.

Yet, although all men were asserting vehemently that "Paul's could never burn," all faces were looking anxious, and all ears were eagerly attuned to catch any new item of news which a messenger or passerby might bring.
The murkiness in the air, faintly discernible even yesterday, had become very marked by this time.

The smell of fire was in the air, although as yet the terrible roaring of the flames, of which all men who had been near it were speaking, had not yet become audible in the Babel of talk going on in the streets and about the great church.