stunned, holding his mother's hand and staring dumbly into
space; or for hours paced to and fro in the little _patio_, his face
rigidly set and his eyes fixed vacantly on the ground beneath. The
work of four years in opening his mind, in expanding his thought, in
drawing him out of his habitual reticence and developing within him
the sense of companionship and easy tolerance, was at one stroke
rendered null. Brought face to face with the grim destroyer, all the
doubt and confusion of former years broke the bounds which had held
them in abeyance and returned upon him with increased insistence.
Never before had he felt so keenly the impotence of mortal man and the
futility of worldly strivings. Never had he seen so clearly the fatal
defects in the accepted interpretation of Christ's mission on earth.
His earlier questionings returned in violent protests against the
emptiness of the beliefs and formalities of the Church. In times past
he had voiced vague and dimly outlined perceptions of her spiritual
needs. But now to him these needs had suddenly taken definite form.
Jesus had healed the sick of all manner of disease. He himself was
being trained to represent the Christ on earth. Would he, too, be
taught to heal the sick as the Master had done? The blessed Saviour
said, "The works that I do, ye shall do also." But the priests, his
representatives, clearly were not doing the works of the Master. And
if he himself had been an ordained priest at the time of his father's
death, could he have saved him? No, he well knew that he could not.
And yet he would have been the Saviour's representative among men.
Alas! how poor a one he well knew.

In his stress of mind he sought his uncle, and by him was again led
before the Archbishop. His reticence and timidity dispersed by his
great sorrow, the distraught boy faced the high ecclesiastic with
questions terribly blunt.

"Why, my Father, after four years in the _Seminario_, am I not being
taught to do the works which our blessed Saviour did?"

The placid Archbishop stared at the boy in dumb astonishment. Again,
after years of peace that had promised quiescence on these mooted
points! Well, he must buckle on his armor--if indeed he had not
outgrown it quite--and prepare to withstand anew the assaults of the
devil!

"H'm!--to be specific, my son--you mean--?" The great man was
sparring.

"Why do we not heal the sick as he did?" the boy explained tersely.

"Ah!" The peace-loving