I not unworthy of yours? What is to become of
me, for a God and a Church and a hiding-place I must have?"

And Father Rielle answered quietly:--

"There is no difficulty, my son. The sin, if sin it was, is past, and
even if it were not, if it still lingered in you, we would take you in
and help and restore you. We refuse no man, no woman; we do not
question, we do not talk, we make no guesses, we are not curious. We
will take you as we have taken, as our Church has taken, thousands of
others--for the present and for the future--caring nothing for the
past. We recognize that all men are not alike. Some will still
preach, and you were one of these, but you will soon be content to
preach no longer; for such as you it is but a weariness of the flesh, a
disturber, a tempter. Others will still do parish work, like myself;
regular work among the people that does not show, more or less
successful, more or less uneventful. Others will pass in behind the
high walls of a monastery and lead the ordered life prescribed for
them; you are to be one of these and I foresee you gaining in
self-restraint, calm, and growing in spiritual insight as you
voluntarily forsake all worldly ties and sympathies and disappear from
men for ever."

Ringfield moved uneasily. It seemed as if the priest took things too
much for granted.

"How can I tell?" he faltered. "It attracts me, it moves before me
night and day; the quiet hours told off by bells--are they not?"

"Yes, my brother."

"The cowled men working in the garden, at graves, I have heard. Is it
not so?"

"Yes, yes, and at other things," said the priest indulgently.

"The prayers, said kneeling on the cold floors, the precision and
solemnity of it all, the absence of all distractions. Oh, there surely
I shall find rest unto my soul;--only if I joined, and found I could
not stay, if the world again called me!"

Father Rielle closed his eyes and yawned with an indescribable air of
mastery and insolence.

"There would always be your oath, my son. Do not forget that."

"My oath! An oath!"

"Certainly. There will be preparation necessary for many days before
you can enter. But once a member, a sworn member of that community (I
am thinking of our brothers at Oka), you have done with the world. You
know the world no longer. It cannot call you."

"But if it did----"

"I say it cannot."

"But I might burst my bonds and seek it!"

"You might, but I do not think y