He did not again revert to his connection with the Jesuits; but in the
farther course of their acquaintance Odo was often struck by the
firmness with which he testified to the faith that was in him, without
using the jargon of piety, or seeming, by his own attitude, to cast a
reflection on that of others. He was indeed master of that worldly
science which the Jesuits excelled in imparting, and which, though it
might sink to hypocrisy in smaller natures, became in a finely-tempered
spirit, the very flower of Christian courtesy.

Odo had often spoken to de Crucis of the luxurious lives led by many of
the monastic orders in Naples. It might be true enough that the monks
themselves, and even their abbots, fared on fish and vegetables, and
gave their time to charitable and educational work; but it was
impossible to visit the famous monastery of San Martino, or that of the
Carthusians at Camaldoli, without observing that the anchoret's cell had
expanded into a delightful apartment, with bedchamber, library and
private chapel, and his cabbage-plot into a princely garden. De Crucis
admitted the truth of the charge, explaining it in part by the character
of the Neapolitan people, and by the tendency of the northern traveller
to forget that such apparent luxuries as spacious rooms, shady groves
and the like are regarded as necessities in a hot climate. He urged,
moreover, that the monastic life should not be judged by a few isolated
instances; and on the way to Rome he proposed that Odo, by way of seeing
the other side of the question, should visit the ancient foundation of
the Benedictines on Monte Cassino.

The venerable monastery, raised on its height over the busy vale of
Garigliano, like some contemplative spirit above the conflicting
problems of life, might well be held to represent the nobler side of
Christian celibacy. For nearly a thousand years its fortified walls had