The Place of the Lion

It's difficult to choose which of Charles Williams's works of fiction is my favorite- although, I think it may be Descent into Hell- but The Place of the Lion is also high on the list. There was one particular scene in the latter that impressed me. Richardson is standing outside of a church when the people are beginning to come out. One elderly lady approaches him and asks, "Are you saved?" Richardson contemplating the question, thinks to himself, "She had reduced indescribable complexities of experience to an epigram." I like that phrasing, but his answer is also memorable. "I believe salvation is for all who will have it, and I will have it by the only possible means."