the Abbot looked, he saw, sure enough, that
his hand trembled as Gabriel had said; for the poor monk had hard work
to control his feelings.

Now the Abbot really did not mean to be unkind. It was only that he did
not quite know how to unbend; and perhaps feeling this, he soon went
out.

Gabriel, who had been very much afraid he might say something to him
about their conversation of the morning, felt greatly relieved when the
door closed behind him; and the rest of the afternoon he and Brother
Stephen worked on in silence.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HOUR BOOK

BUT the next morning when Gabriel reached the Abbey, to his great joy he
found the chain gone (for the Abbot had so ordered after his visit to
the chapter-house), and Brother Stephen already hard at work, and happy
as a bird. For like many other artist souls, when things went wrong,
Brother Stephen suffered dreadful unhappiness; while, on the other hand,
when pleased, he was full of boundless delight; and so, being relieved
from the chain, he was in one of his most joyous moods.

He smiled brightly as Gabriel entered; and the April sunlight streaming
in through the high narrow windows sparkled so radiantly, and so filled
them with the life and energy and gladness of the spring-time, that each
of them felt as though he could do no end of work, and that King Louis's
book should be one of the most beautiful things in all the world!

And that morning was but the beginning of a long series of happy days
that Brother Stephen and Gabriel were to spend together. At first the
monk knew nothing of how it happened that he was freed from the
humiliation of the chain; but one day he heard about Gabriel's talk
with the Abbot from one of the brotherhood who had chanced to be in the
garden that morning, and had overheard them.

At first Brother Stephen was rather displeased; for he did not like it
that the little boy had begged of the Abbot something which he himself
was too proud to ask. But when he thought it over, and reflected that it
was out of sheer kindness that Gabriel had made the request, his heart
strangely warmed toward the lad. Indeed, through all his life in the
Abbey, no one had ever really cared whether he was happy or unhappy; and
so poor Brother Stephen had had no idea how very pleasant it would be
to have even a little peasant boy take an interest in him. And as day
after day went by, he began to love Gabriel, as he had never before
loved any one.

Ye