so much troubled at having a
scruple in regard to the Bible? it says that the great chastisement for
original sin is that in the sweat of his brow shall man earn his bread:
now, to my mind hard work, instead of a punishment, is the greatest
delight."

"Oh," said Clement, "that's in the Old Testament. It's meant for the
Jews, and it just suits them; for hard work is their favorite
aversion."

Thus early did he stumble on the familiar device of the theologians
when hard pushed in regard to some passage in the Old Testament.
Clement did not suffer the matter to rest here, however. He confessed
his own longing to incur dangers and to wander through distant
countries. They even talked frequently of a flight from the convent.
They pictured to themselves the romance of arriving on a distant
island, struggling with wild beasts and subjugating the virgin soil. Of
course the project was never executed. The laws of the convent and the
ties of home were too strong for them.

The warmth of their friendship increased from day to day and bridged
over all the chasms which the difference of their dispositions might
have caused. Ivo forfeited his place at the head of the class without
regret, and allowed even Bart to rise above him. This external
abasement almost pleased him, for it marked his distaste for his
studies. The consciousness of being better than he seemed was grateful
to him and gave him a certain independence of the outward world. He
formed a secret league with the wood-cutters, the lowest servants of
the convent. He swung the axe with a vigor as if he would have cleft
the globe. At length one of the professors detected these
irregularities; and Ivo atoned for them in the lock-up of the
establishment.

Thus, from having been one of the best and most diligent of the pupils,
Ivo had sunk to be the lowest in the class and the most obstreperous.

At the arrival of the holidays the friends would part with almost
feverish sorrow, consoling themselves with the hope of meeting again,
and yet wishing never to return to the convent. On the way home, the
world without had lost its lustre in Ivo's eyes, and the people he met
no longer appeared so good and kind: the world within him had altered.
At home he was not so shy of Constantine as formerly, and the state of
things in his father's house had ceased to weigh upon his spirits:
having learned that no man on earth is entirely happy within himself,
he had no more reason to wonder