----I will not, Stephen said.

----Why not? Cranly said.

----I will not serve, answered Stephen.

----That remark was made before, Cranly said calmly.

----It is made behind now, said Stephen hotly.

Cranly pressed Stephen's arm, saying:

----Go easy, my dear man. You're an excitable bloody man, do you know.

He laughed nervously as he spoke and, looking up into Stephen's face with moved and friendly eyes, said:

----Do you know that you are an excitable man?

----I daresay I am, said Stephen, laughing also.

Their minds, lately estranged, seemed suddenly to have been drawn closer, one to the other.

----Do you believe in the eucharist? Cranly asked.

----I do not, Stephen said.

----Do you disbelieve then?

----I neither believe in it nor disbelieve in it, Stephen answered.

----Many persons have doubts, even religious persons, yet they overcome them or put them aside, Cranly said. Are your doubts on that point too strong?

----I do not wish to overcome them, Stephen answered.

Cranly, embarrassed for a moment, took another fig from his pocket and was about to eat it when Stephen said:

----Don't, please. You cannot discuss this question with your mouth full of chewed fig.

Cranly examined the fig by the light of a lamp under which he halted. Then he smelt it with both nostrils, bit a tiny piece, spat it out and threw the fig rudely into the gutter.

Addressing it as it lay, he said:

----Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire! Taking Stephen's arms, he went on again and said:

----Do you not fear that those words may be spoken to you on the day of judgement?