God for knowledge,
and left behind them to successors yet unborn great traditions of the
enigmas they had guessed. In entering upon the study of theology he
seemed to become a soldier in the sacred band, the elite of the army
which won and guarded truth. Already he was convinced that there could
be no greater science than the Divine one, no more inspiring moment in
life than this one when he took his first step towards the knowledge of
God.

He crossed the quadrangle with his mind full of such thoughts,
and joined a group of students round the door of one of the
examination-halls. It did not shock his sense of fitness that some of
his fellow-students in the great science wore shabby clothes, or that
others scorned the use of a razor. Bred as he had been at home, he felt
no incongruity between dirty collars and the study of divinity. It
was not until he caught scraps of conversation that he experienced an
awakening from his dream. One eager group surrounded a foreseeing youth
who had written the dates of the first four General Councils of the
Church upon his shirt-cuff.

'Read them out, like a good man,' said one.

'Hold on a minute,' said another, 'till I see if I have got them right.
I ground them up specially this morning. Nicaea, 318--no, hang it! that's
the number of Bishops who were present; 325 was the date, wasn't it?'

'What was the row about at Chalcedon?' asked a tall, pale youth. 'Didn't
some monk or other go for Cyril of Alexandria?'

'You'll be stuck anyhow, Tommy,' said a neat, dapper little man with a
very ragged gown.

Hyacinth slipped past the group, and approached two better dressed
students who stood apart from the others.

'Is this,' he asked, 'where the entrance examination to the divinity
school is to be held?'

For answer he received a curt 'Yes' and a stare. Apparently his suit of
brown Connemara homespun did not commend him to these aristocrats. They
turned their backs on him, and resumed their conversation.

'She was walking up and down the pier listening to the band with two
of the rankest outsiders you ever set eyes on--medicals out of Paddy
Dunn's. Of course I could do nothing else but break it off.'

'Oh, you were engaged to her, then? I didn't know.'

'Well, I was and I wasn't. Anyhow, I thought it better to have a clear
understanding. She came up to me outside the door of Patrick's on Sunday
afternoon just as if nothing had happened. "Hullo, Bob," says she;
"I haven't seen y