t. His pale, fleshless face, refined and full
of intellect, wore a look of solemn gravity. "I believe," said he in
Italian, which sounded foreign and formal, but which was nevertheless
warm with feeling, "that finding ourselves, as we now do, united at the
beginning of a religious movement, we should at once do two things. The
first is to concentrate our souls in God, silently each in his own way,
until we feel the presence in us of God Himself, the desire of Him, His
very glory, in our hearts. I will now do this, and I beg you to do it
with me."

So saying, Professor Dane crossed his arms over his breast, bent his
head, and closed his eyes. The others rose, and all save Abbe Marinier
clasped their hands. The Abbe, with a sweeping gesture which embraced
the air, brought them together on his breast. The soft complaining of
the lamp, a step on the floor below could be distinctly heard. Marinier
was the first to glance up furtively, to ascertain if the others still
prayed. Dane raised his head, and said:

"Amen."

"The second thing!" he added. "We propose to ourselves to obey in all
things the legitimate ecclesiastical authority--"

Don Paolo Fare burst out, exclaiming: "That must depend!"

The vibration of sudden thought, the muffled rumbling of unspoken
words, shook all present. Dane said slowly: "Exercised according to just
principles." The movement shrunk to a murmur of assent, and then ceased.
Dane went on: "And now one thing more! Let there never be hatred of any
one on our lips nor in our hearts!"

Don Paolo burst out again: "No, not hatred but indignation!
'_Circumspiciens eos cum ira_!'"

"Yes," said Don Clemente in his sweet, soft voice; "when we shall have
enthroned Christ within us; when we shall feel the wrath of pure love."

Don Paolo, who was near him, made no answer; he looked at him, his eyes
suffused with tears, and, seizing his hand, carried it to his lips. The
Benedictine drew back, startled, his face aflame.

"And we shall not enthrone Christ within us," said Giovanni, much moved,
and pleased with the mystic breath he seemed to feel passing over the
assembly, "If we do not purify our ideas of reform through love; if,
when the time comes to operate, we do not first purify our hands and
our instruments. This indignation, this wrath of which you, Don Paolo,
speak, is really a powerful snare which the evil one uses against
us; powerful precisely because it bears the semblance of virtue and
somet