should not be affronted.

"He has his own troubles," they said. "It is a combat of the gods that
is taking place."

So much for the women; but the men also were uneasy. They prowled up and
down, tramping from the spy-hole to the kitchen, and from the kitchen
to the turreted roof. And from the roof they would look down on the
motionless figure below, and speculate on many things, including
the staunchness of man, the qualities of their master, and even the
possibility that the new gods might be as powerful as the old.
From these peepings and discussions they would return languid and
discouraged.

"If," said one irritable guard, "if we buzzed a spear at the persistent
stranger, or if one slung at him with a jagged pebble!"

"What!" his master demanded wrathfully, "is a spear to be thrown at
an unarmed stranger? And from this house!" And he soundly cuffed that
indelicate servant.

"Be at peace all of you," he said, "for hunger has a whip, and he will
drive the stranger away in the night."

The household retired to wretched beds; but for the master of the house
there was no sleep. He marched his halls all night, going often to
the spy-hole to see if that shadow was still sitting in the shade, and
pacing thence, tormented, preoccupied, refusing even the nose of his
favourite dog as it pressed lovingly into his closed palm.

On the morrow he gave in.

The great door was swung wide, and two of his servants carried Finnian
into the house, for the saint could no longer walk or stand upright by
reason of the hunger and exposure to which he had submitted. But his
frame was tough as the unconquerable spirit that dwelt within it, and
in no long time he was ready for whatever might come of dispute or
anathema.

Being quite re-established he undertook the conversion of the master of
the house, and the siege he laid against that notable intelligence was
long spoken of among those who are interested in such things.

He had beaten the disease of Mugain; he had beaten his own pupil the
great Colm Cille; he beat Tuan also, and just as the latter's door had
opened to the persistent stranger, so his heart opened, and Finnian
marched there to do the will of God, and his own will.

CHAPTER III

One day they were talking together about the majesty of God and His
love, for although Tuan had now received much instruction on this
subject he yet needed more, and he laid as close a siege on Finnian
as Finnian had before that laid