recover a man of his leprosy? Farewell. You shall see your cousin
here at noon to-morrow. You will not refuse my blessing, or my
prayers, even though they be offered to a mother?'

'I will refuse nothing in the form of human love.' And the father
blessed him fervently, and he went out. . . .

'What a man!' said he to himself, 'or rather the wreck of what a
man! Oh, for such a heart, with the thews and sinews of a truly
English brain!'

Next day he met Luke in that room. Their talk was short and sad.
Luke was on the point of entering an order devoted especially to the
worship of the Blessed Virgin.

'My father has cast me out . . . I must go to her feet. She will
have mercy, though man has none.'

'But why enter the order? Why take an irrevocable step?'

'Because it is irrevocable; because I shall enter an utterly new
life, in which old things shall pass away, and all things become
new, and I shall forget the very names of Parent, Englishman,
Citizen,--the very existence of that strange Babel of man's
building, whose roar and moan oppress me every time I walk the
street. Oh, for solitude, meditation, penance! Oh, to make up by
bitter self-punishment my ingratitude to her who has been leading me
unseen, for years, home to her bosom!--The all-prevailing mother,
daughter of Gabriel, spouse of Deity, flower of the earth, whom I
have so long despised! Oh, to follow the example of the blessed