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lecturer.
And presently they began to understand.
That night the star rose later, for its proper eastward motion had
carried it some way across Leo towards Virgo, and its brightness was so
great that the sky became a luminous blue as it rose, and every star was
hidden in its turn, save only Jupiter near the zenith, Capella,
Aldebaran, Sirius and the pointers of the Bear. It was very white and
beautiful. In many parts of the world that night a pallid halo encircled
it about. It was perceptibly larger; in the clear refractive sky of the
tropics it seemed as if it were nearly a quarter the size of the moon.
The frost was still on the ground in England, but the world was as
brightly lit as if it were midsummer moonlight. One could see to read
quite ordinary print by that cold clear light, and in the cities the
lamps burnt yellow and wan.
And everywhere the world was awake that night, and throughout
Christendom a sombre murmur hung in the keen air over the countryside
like the belling of bees in the heather, and this murmurous tumult grew
to a clangour in the cities. It was the tolling of the bells in a
million belfry towers and steeples, summoning the people to sleep no
more, to sin no more, but to gather in their churches and pray. And
overhead, growing larger and brighter, as the earth rolled on its way
and the night passed, rose the dazzling star.
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