the Infinite
Pity rose up the infinite need of man--_Nobis quoque peccatoribus_--and
sank to silence again.

Then loud and clear rang out _Per omnia saecula saeculorum;_ and the
choir of monks sang _Amen_.

So the great mystery moved on, but upborne now by the very Presence
itself that sustained all things. From the limitless sea of mercy, the
children cried through the priest's lips to their Father who was in
heaven, and entreated the Lamb of God who takes away sin to have mercy
on them and give them peace.

Then from far beyond the screen Mary could see how the priest leaning a
little forward towards That which he bore in his hands, looked on what
he bore in them; and she whispered softly with him the words that he was
speaking. _Ave in aeternum sanctissima caro Christi_ ...

Again she hid her face; and when she raised it once, all was over, and
the Lord had entered and sanctified the body and soul of the man at
whose words He had entered the creature of bread.

The father and daughter stood together silently in the sunshine outside
the west end of the church, waiting for Chris. He had promised to come
to them there for a moment when his thanksgiving was done.

Beyond the wall, and the guest-house where the Visitors had lived those
two disastrous days, rose up the far sunlit downs, shadowed here and
there with cup-like hollows, standing like the walls about Jerusalem.

As they turned, on the right above the red roofs of the town, rose the
downs again, vast slopes and shoulders, over which Chris had ridden so
short a while ago bearded and brown with hunting. It was over there that
Ralph had come, through that dip, which seemed against the skyline a
breach in a high wall.

Ah! surely God would spare this place; so stately and quiet, so
graciously sheltered by the defences that He Himself had raised! If all
England tottered and fell, this at least might stand, this vast home of
prayer that stirred day and night with the praises of the Eternal and
the petitions of the mortal--this glorious house where a priest so dear
to them had brought forth from his mystical paternity the very Son of
God!

The door opened behind them, and Chris came out pale and smiling with a
little anxious-eyed monk beside him. His eyes lightened as he saw them
standing there; but he turned again for a moment.

"Yes--father," he said. "What was it?"

"You stayed too long," said the other, "at the _famularumque tuarum_;
the rubric says