a gymnasium, and twice a week the apparatus is
cleared away and we have a dance. Every other evening it's used
furiously by Father Rowley's "boys." They're such a jolly lot, and
most of them splendid gymnasts. Quite a few have become
professional acrobats since they opened the gymnasium. The first
morning after my arrival I asked Father Rowley if he'd got anything
special for me to do and he told me to catalogue the books in his
library. Everybody laughed at this, and I thought at first that
some joke was intended, but when I got to his room I found it
really was in utter confusion with masses of books lying about
everywhere. So I set to work pretty hard and after about three days
I got them catalogued and in good order. When I told him I had
finished he looked very surprised, and a solemn visit of inspection
was ordered. As the room was looking quite tidy at last, I didn't
mind. I've realized since that Father Rowley always sets people the
task of cataloguing and arranging his books when he doubts if they
are really worth their salt, and now he complains that I have
spoilt one of his best ordeals for slackers. I said to him that he
needn't be afraid because from what I could see of the way he
treated books they would be just as untidy as ever in another week.
Everybody laughed, though I was afraid at first they might consider
it rather cheek my talking like this, but you've got to stand up
for yourself here because there never was such a place for turning
a man inside out. It's a real discipline, and I think if I manage
to deserve to stay here three years I shall have the right to feel
I've had the finest training for Holy Orders anybody could possibly
have.

You know enough about Father Rowley yourself to understand how
impossible it would be for me to give any impression of his
personality in a letter. I have never felt so strongly the absolute
goodness of anybody. I suppose that some of the great mediaeval
saints like St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua must have been
like that. One reads about them and what they did, but the facts
one reads don't really tell anything. I always feel that what we
really depend on is a kind of tradition of their absolute
saintliness handed on from the people who experienced it. I suppose
in a way the same