guardians of the building.

Small guardianship is needed. The huge ancient doors--made of planks
from vine trunks which grew fifteen hundred years ago on the
Bosphorus--are never closed; probably because their weight would
defy the efforts of the two poor old friars, to whom the keeping of
the building is committed, to move them. But a poor and mean low
gate of iron rails has been fitted to the colossal marble door-
posts, which suffices to prevent the wandering cattle of the waste
from straying into the church, but does not prevent the fever-laden
mists from the marshes from drifting into the huge nave, and
depositing their unwholesome moisture in great trickling drops upon
the green-stained walls.

But not even the low iron gateway was closed when Paolina reached
the church. It stood partially open. After having stood a minute or
two before the building to look round upon the scene, Paolina
stepped up to the gate and looked into the church, but could see no
human being. Within, as without, all was utter death-like silence.
She shivered, and drew her cloak more closely round her, as she
stood at the gate; for the healthy blood was running rapidly through
her veins after her brisk walk, and the deadly cold damp air from
the church struck her with a shudder, which was but the physical
complement of the moral impression produced by the aspect of the
place.

After a minute, however, wondering at the stillness, half frightened
at the utter solitude, and awed by the vast gloomy grandeur of the
naked but venerable building, she pushed the gate, and entered.