I think I showed it.  From that moment I felt as if we were almost friends.  Never before had I experienced such a feeling for anyone who had come to the monastery, or for any monk or novice in the monastery.  Although I had been vexed, irritated, at the approach of a stranger I now felt regret at the idea of his going away.  Presently the time came to show him round the garden.  We went out of the shadowy parlour into the sunshine.  No one was in the garden.  Only the bees were humming, the birds were passing, the cats were basking on the broad path that stretched from the arcade along the front of the hotellerie.  As we came out a bell chimed, breaking for an instant the silence, and making it seem the sweeter when it returned.  We strolled for a little while.  We did not talk much.  The stranger’s eyes, I noticed, were everywhere, taking in every detail of the scene around us.  Presently we came to the vineyard, to the left of which was the road that led to the cemetery, passed up the road and arrived at the cemetery gate.

“‘Here I must leave you,’ I said.

“‘Why?’ he asked quickly.

“’There is another Father who will show you the chapel.  I shall wait for you here.’

“I sat down and waited.  When the stranger returned it seemed to me that his face was calmer, that there was a quieter expression in his eyes.  When we were once more before the hotellerie I said: 

“‘You have seen all my small domain now.’

“He glanced at the house.

“‘But there seems to be a number of rooms,’ he said.

“‘Only the bedrooms.’

“‘Bedrooms?  Do people stay the night here?’

“‘Sometimes.  If they please they can stay for longer than a night.’

“‘How much longer?’

“’For any time they please, if they conform to one or two simple rules and pay a small fixed sum to the monastery.’

“‘Do you mean that you could take anyone in for the summer?’ he said abruptly.

“’Why not?  The consent of the Reverend Pere has to be obtained.  That is all.’

“‘I should like to see the bedrooms.’

“I took him in and showed him one.

“‘All the others are the same,’ I said.

“He glanced round at the white walls, the rough bed, the crucifix above it, the iron basin, the paved floor, then went to the window and looked out.

“‘Well,’ he said, drawing back into the room, ’I will go now to see the Pere Abbe, if it is permitted.’

“On the garden path I bade him good-bye.  He shook my hand.  There was an odd smile in his face.  Half-an-hour later I saw him coming again through the arcade.

“‘Father,’ he said, ’I am not going away.  I have asked the Pere Abbe’s permission to stay here.  He has given it to me.  To-morrow such luggage as I need will be sent over from Tunis.  Are you—­are you very vexed to have a stranger to trouble your peace?’

“His intensely observant eyes were fixed upon me while he spoke.  I answered: