could not
shut out the sounds of the streets. All day long the bands were playing
and the horses prancing, and there was the tramp of many feet. And even
in the last hour before the ceremony, when he was on his knees in front
of the crucifix and the palms of his hands were pressed against his face,
he could see the gay spectacle and the surging throngs--the men, the
women, the children in every window, on every parapet, and Glory in the
midst of them with her laughing lips and her sparkling eyes.

Night brought peace with it at length, and then the bell rang and he went
down to service. The brothers were waiting for him in the hall, and they
formed into line and passed into the church: first, Brother Andrew with
the cross, then Brother Paul with the incense, and the other lay brothers
with the candles, then the religious in their cassocks, and the Superior
in his cope, and John Storm last of all.

The altar was decorated as for a feast, and the service was strange but
solemn. John had drawn up in writing a promise of stability and
obedience, and this he placed with his own hand on the altar. Down to
that moment he had worn his costume as a secular priest, but now he was
to be robed in the habit of the Order.

The Father stood on the altar steps with the habit lying at his feet. He
took it up and blessed it and then put it on John, saying as he bound it
with the cord, "Take this cord and wear it in memory of the purity of
heart wherewith you must ever hereafter seek to abide in the love and
service of our Lord Jesus."

At that moment a door was suddenly and loudly slammed, to signify that
the world was being shut out; the choir said the Gloria Patri, and then
sang a hymn beginning:

Farewell, thou world of sorrow,
Unrest, and schism and strife!
I leave thee on the threshold
Of the celestial life.

It was the occasion of Brother Paul's life vows also, and as John stood
back from the altar steps the lay brother was brought up to them. He was
very pale and nervous, and he would have stumbled but for the help of the
Father Minister and Brother Andrew, who walked on either side of him.

Then the same ceremony was gone through again, but with yet more solemn
accessories. The burial service was read, the De Profundis was sung, the
bell was tolled, the Ecce quam bonum was intoned, and finally the chant
was chanted:

Dead to Him, then death is over,
Dead and gone are death's dark fears.

John Storm w