small choice of
ways in this little settlement; but for all that you will find that
Montserrat is one of the glories of Spain."

He went his way, and we wondered what news from the outer world could
now have any interest for the monks who were as dead to that world as
though they reposed under their nameless graves in the little cemetery.

CHAPTER XVI.

A HIDDEN GENIUS.

Monk's face--Superfluous virtue--"Welcome to Montserrat"--Mean
advantage--Exacting but not mercenary--Another Miguel--Missing
keys--Singular monk--Hospederia--Uncertainty--Monk's idea of
luxury--Rare prospect--Haunted by silence--Father Salvador
privileged--Monk sees ghosts--Under Miguel's escort--In the
church--Departed glory--The black image--Gothic and Norman
outlines--Franciscan monk or ghost?--Vision of the past--Days of
persecution--Sensible image--Great community--Harmony of the
spheres--Sad cypresses--Life of a hermit--Monk's story--Loving the
world--Penitence--Plucked from the burning--Talent developed--A
world apart--False interest--Salvador--Temptation and a
compromise--Salvador extemporises--"All the magic of the
hour"--Salvador's belief--Waiting for manifestations.

We turned to the right, and entering the building indicated, passed into
a bare, unfurnished room. Through a square hole in the wall, not unlike
a buttery-hatch, a monk's face peered at us with large coal-black eyes,
startling in their effect; a small, spare monk, with unshaven face,
round head and black hair, habited in the ugly dress of the Jesuit
order. It struck us rather unpleasantly that everything about him was
black, not the eyes and hair only. He evidently belonged to a sect who
thought washing superfluous, if not sinful.

"Ah!" he exclaimed in quite friendly tones. "Welcome to Montserrat! I am
very happy to see you."

"We might be chums of a lifetime," said H. C., shuddering, as the
well-disposed ecclesiastic advanced a dusky hand; for we saw it coming
and meanly put him in the foreground. In spite of his Napoleon manner,
he had to shake it. The little monk was not to be frowned down.

"I am very happy to see you," he repeated. "You are welcome. Our
visitors are few at this time of the year. Every visitor adds his quota
to our common fund. However small, it is acceptable. Do not think me
mercenary. The fathers and brothers must live, and they do a great deal
of good. Even up here, out of