uel
necessity, partly influenced by the impulse to deny inherited from
Puritan ancestors.

Suddenly he became aware that Cardington had been talking again, and
that he had shown indifferent courtesy as a listener. He roused
himself to attention, and detected at once the unusual flavour of his
companion's remarks, from which all jest had gone, showing instead a
poetical and reminiscent mood.

"The silhouettes of the trees which the electric light throws upon the
walk," he was saying, "remind me of a wonderful moonlight night I once
spent at Assisi. I was younger then than I am now, and it was my first
journey in that land of enchantment. I travelled as lightly as one of
the apostles, with staff and scrip, so to speak, and having resisted
the efforts of the cabman at the station to rob me, I started to walk
up to the city alone. I understand they have a trolley line now,--just
imagine the profanation of a trolley line in the ancient city of St.
Francis!--but at the time of which I speak, the atmosphere of the
Middle Ages still hung over the place unbroken.

"The city lay above the valley, white-walled and silent. I remember
touching with my stick what appeared to be a streak of moonlight that
had filtered through the branches of a tree, when a beautiful little
serpent uncoiled himself and slipped away into the shadows. Well, the
distance was greater than I had supposed, and the hour was late, so
that by the time I reached the city gate, I found it closed for the
night. There was nothing to do but to sit down and wait for morning.
I found a large, flat rock which seemed still to hold some of the heat
of the sun, and looked out over the surrounding country. Just think of
my situation! There I was, a young man fresh from America, full of the
most extravagant romance, sitting alone in the moonlight before the
gate of a mediaeval walled city, and a city, too, so rich with
traditions that I grew dazed in trying to recall them. It may be that
the moon became hypnotic in its influence, for I lay down and stared up
at it like one bewitched.

"I don't know how long a time passed in this manner before I was
aroused by the appearance of an old peasant around the corner of my
rock, bending under a huge bundle of faggots. I addressed myself to
him in the best Italian I could then command, and asked whether it were
possible to enter the city--_entrare la citta_. He rung a bell by
pulling a rope that hung down over the w