Wednesday 21 August 2013

bound to set it on again with respectful questions. He knew that the tale was a prelude and his mind waited for the sequel. Ever since the message of summons had come for him from the director his mind had struggled to find the meaning of the message; and during the long restless time he had sat in the college parlour waiting for the director to come in his eyes had wandered from one sober picture to another around the walls and his mind wandered from one guess to another until the meaning of the summons had almost become clear. Then, just as he was wishing that some unforseen cause might prevent the director from coming, he had heard the handle of the door turning and the swish of a soutane.

The director had begun to speak of the domincan and franciscan orders and of the friendship between saint Thomas and saint Bonaventure. The capuchin dress, he thought, was rather too...

Stephen's face gave back the priest's indulgent smile and, not being anxious to give an opinion, he made a slight dubitative movement with his lips.

----I believe, continued the director, that there is some talk now among the capuchins themselves of doing away with it and following the example of the other franciscans.

----I suppose they would retain it in the cloister, said Stephen.

----O, certainly, said the director. For the cloister it is all right but for the street I really think it would be better to do away with, don't you?

----It must be troublesome, I imagine?

----Of course it is, of course. Just imagine when I was in Belgium I used to see them out cycling in all kinds of weather with this thing up about their knees! It was really ridiculous. Les jupes, they call them Belgium.

The vowel was so modified as to be indistinct.

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