wear it,' said Basil, sincerely hesitating to
replace it on his finger. 'Indeed, I will not do so until I have spoken
with the holy father.'

This resolve Marcus commended, and, with a kindly word, he went his
way. Basil worked on. To discipline his thoughts he kept murmuring,
'Vivas in Deo,' and reflecting upon the significance of the words; for,
often as he had seen them, he had never till now mused upon their
meaning. What was the life in God I Did it mean that of the world to
come? Ay, but how attain unto eternal blessedness save by striving to
anticipate on earth that perfection of hereafter? And so was he brought
again to the conclusion that, would he assure life eternal, he must
renounce all that lured him in mortality.

The brothers returning from the field at the third hour signalled to
him that for to-day he had worked enough. One of them, in passing, gave
him a smile, and said good-naturedly:

'Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it
shall be well with thee.'

Weary, but with the sense of healthful fatigue, Basil rested for an
hour on his bed. He then took the Psalter and opened it at hazard, and
the first words his eyes fell upon were:

'Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it
shall be well with thee.'

'A happy omen,' he thought. But stay; what was this that followed?

'Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy
children like olive plants round about thy table.

'Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.'

The blood rushed into his cheeks. He sat staring at the open page as
though in astonishment. He read and re-read the short psalm of which
these verses were part, and if a voice had spoken it to him from above
he could scarce have felt more moved by the message. Basil had never
been studious of the Scriptures, and, if ever he had known that they
contained such matter as this, it had quite faded from his memory. He
thought of the Holy Book as hostile to every form of earthly happiness,
its promises only for those who lived to mortify their natural desires.
Yet here was the very word of God encouraging him in his heart's hope.
Were not men wont to use the Bible as their oracle, opening the pages
at hazard, even as he had done?

It was long before he could subdue his emotions so as to turn to the
reading imposed upon him. He brought himself at length into the fitting
mind by remembering that t