s though he had only that
moment became aware of our presence. He did not seem to resent the
intrusion, but looked up with a searching inquiring glance, which
presently changed to a smile beautiful and almost childlike in its
confidence: sad, beseeching, as though it were in our power to interpret
to him the hidden mysteries of the unseen; the perplexing problems of
life; the doubts and difficulties with which his questioning heart
contended.

"You have indeed found a quiet corner for contemplation," we remarked
after he had greeted us with a subdued: "May Heaven have you in its holy
keeping."

[Illustration: SALVADOR THE MONK.]

"It is all my want and all my desire," he replied, in a voice that was
full of melody. "I live the life of a hermit. Near at hand I have my
small hermitage, and I also have my cell in the monastery, occupying the
one or the other as inclination prompts me. For you see by my dress that
though this is my home, where I shall live and die, I do not belong to
the Jesuits. I am really a Franciscan, but have obtained a dispensation,
and I live here. I love to contemplate these splendours of nature; to
read my breviary under the blue sky and the shadow of our great
mountain. Here I feel in touch with Heaven. The things unseen become
real and tangible, doubts and difficulties vanish. My soul gathers
strength. I return to my cell, and its walls crush all life and hope out
of me; weigh upon me with an oppression greater and deeper than that of
yonder giant height. I feel as though I should die, or fall away from
grace. There have been times when they have come to my cell and found me
unconscious. I have only revived when they have brought me out to the
fresh air, this freedom and expanse. The good Father-Superior recognises
my infirmity and has given me the hermit's cave. I will show it to you
if you like. It is quite habitable and not what you might imagine, for
it is a built-up room with light and air, not a cavern dark and earthy.
I love solitude and am never solitary. Once I loved the world too much;
I lived in the fever of life and dissipation. Heaven had mercy upon me,
and you behold a brand plucked from the burning. When my heart was dead
and seared, and love and all things beautiful had taken wing, I left the
world. The profligate became a penitent. I took vows upon me and joined
the Franciscan Order. But I should have died if I had not come up here,
where I have found pardon and peace. That wa