rule to discuss, for its own sake, what
had been seen or heard outside, but they were in the air about him, and
they were happening on the other side of the wall.

And he on his part also examined his housemates, and; tried to guess what
manner of men they were and what had brought them to that place. They
were men of all ages, and nearly every school of the Church had sent its
representatives. Here was the pale face of the ascetic, and there the
guileless eyes of the saint. Some were keen and alert, others were timid
and slow. All wore the long black cassock of the community, and many wore
the rope with three knots. They spoke little of the world outside, but it
was clear that they could not dismiss it from their thoughts. Their talk
was cheerful, and the Father told stories of his preaching expeditions
which provoked some laughter. They had no newspapers (except one
well-known High-Church organ) and no games, and there was no smoking.

The bell rang for supper, and they went down to the refectory. It was a
large apartment in the basement, and it still bore the emblems of its
ancient service. Over the great kitchen ingle there was yet another card
with the inscription, "Neither said any of them that aught of the things
which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common." A
table, scoured white, ran round three sides of the room, the seats were
forms without backs, and there was one chair--the Superior's chair--in
the middle.

The supper consisted of porridge and milk and brown bread, and it was
eaten out of plates and cans of pewter. While it lasted one of the
brothers, seated at a raised desk, read first a few passages of
Scripture, and then some pages, of a secular book which the religious
were thus hearing at their meals. The supper was hardly over when the
bell rang again. It was time for Compline, the last service of the day,
and the brothers formed in procession and passed out of the house, across
the courtyard, into the little church.

The old place was dimly lighted, but the brothers occupied the chancel
only. They sat in two companies on opposite sides of the choir, in three
rows of stalls, the lay brothers in front, the novices next, and the
Fathers at the back. Each side had its leader in the recitation of the
prayers. The Miserere was said kneeling, the Psalms were sung with
frequent pauses, each of the duration of the words "Ave Maria," producing
the effect of a broken wail. The service