Hyacinth

. Soon, as the distance dwindled, the lights which twinkled here and there in the village became distinguishable. This-Hyacinth recognised it-was the great hanging lamp in the window of Raffert

ouse of the village, and could see the fishing-boats, dim and naked-looking, riding at their anchors in the bay. Out beyond them, grim and terrible in the twilight, lay the hulk where the ice for fish-packing was stored. The thick stump of her one remaining mast made a blacker bar against the black sky. The pier was deserted, but he could see the bulky stacks of fish-boxes piled on it, and hear the water lapping against it. Along its utmost edge lay a belt of gray white, where the waves broke as they surged round it. He passed the pier, and there lay before him the long hill that led home. The church and the ruined school stood out clearly on the skyline. Below them, less clearly seen, was the rectory, and Hyacinth noted that the lamp in the kitchen was lit. Then the door was opened,

had said good-bye to him two months before. His skin was very transparent, his lips were tremulous,

or it has been very lonely while you were away. I have not been able to do very much lately or to go out to the seashore,

dresser. The whitewash above the fireplace was blackened by the track of the smoke that had blown out of the chimney and climbed up to the still blacker rafters of the roof. Hyacinth remembered how he, and not his father, had been accustomed to clean the room and wash the cups and plates. He wondered how such matters had been managed in his absence, and a great sense of compassion filled his eyes with tears as he thought of the painful struggle w

you. I wanted to get Maggie Cassidy up from the village for th

s hand and held i

er your college rooms and the houses your friend

the emotion which had br

cocoa, and we'll have a feast. Hallo! you've got some jam-jam and butter and eggs, and this is

. Hyacinth recognised the mark, and remembered that he had seen the identical pot on the upper shelf of Raffer

ure. I declare I wouldn't have tasted it if it had come

into the saucepan, hung the kettle on its hook, and cut slices of bread. Then the meal was eaten, Hyacinth after his long drive finding a relish even in the household jam. He plied his father with questions, and heard what the old man knew of the gossip of the village-how T

ed their chairs near to the fire, and Mr. Conneally sat holding his son's hand fast. Sometimes he stroked or patted it gently, but otherwise he seemed scarcely to recognise that he was not alone. His eyes were fixed on the fire, but they stared strangely, as if they saw something afar off, something not in the room

he continued: 'And the young man answered and said unto him, "Say on." And the old man

had been rehearsed by his father alone, again and again, that statement, question and reply, would follow each other in due sequence from the same lips. H

, I am here. Do

I want to tell you. I have wanted to tell it to you for m

at he would relapse again into dr

at I should like to pra

s expressive of intense and rapturous delight, very strange to listen to in such a place and from an old man's lips. Then the language he spoke changed from English into Gaelic, and there came a kind of hymn of adoration. His sentences followed each other in metrical balance like the Latin of the old liturgies, and s

nder my head; His left hand doth embrace me." I sat quite still, and did not move or speak or even breathe, lest He should go away from me. Then, after a long time-I knew afterwards that the time was long, though then it seemed only a minute for the joy that I had in it-He told me-I do not mean that I heard a voice or any words; I did not hear, I felt Him tell me-the things that are to be. The last great fight, the Armageddon, draweth very near. All that is good is on one side in the fight, and the Captain over all. What is bad is on the other side-all kinds of tyranny and greed and lust. I did not hear these words, but I felt the things, only without any fear, for round me were the

ere was silence, for Hyacinth had no commen

ns, and gathered simply into good and bad. Will all men who are good just know the Captain when they see Him and range themselves with Him? But why should we th

points of contact between the two enthusiasms, he caught at the conception of the Roman Church as the Antichrist and her power in Ireland as the point round which the fight must rage. Then with a sudden flash he saw, not Rome, but the British Empire, as the embodiment of the power of darkness. He had learned to think of it as a force, greedy, materialistic, tyrannous, grossly hypocritical. What more was required to satisfy the conception of evil that he sought for? He rem

t the time that he was still awake, held back from slumber by the great stillness of the country, that silence which disturbs ears long accustomed to the continuous roar of towns. Suddenly he started into perfect wakefulness, and felt that he was in possession of all his faculties. The room where he lay was quite dark, but he strained his eyes to see something in it. He listened intently, although no sound whatever met his ears. A great overmastering fear laid hold on him. He tried to reason with himself, insisting that there was nothing, and could be nothing, to be afraid of. Still the fear remained. His lips grew stiff and painfully hot, and when he tried to moisten them his tongue was dry and moved across them raspingly. He s

were on the table. The two chairs stood side by side before the hearth, where the fire which he had covered up smouldered feebly. He turned and went to his father's room. He could not have explained how it was, but when he opened the door he was not surprised to see the old man lying quite still, dead, upon the bed. His face was turned upwards, and on it was that strange look of emotionless peace which rests very often on the faces of the dead. It seemed to Hyacinth quite natural that the soul as it departed into u

bareheaded while the clergyman from Clifden read the prayers and sprinkled the coffin-lid with the clay which symbolized the return of earth to earth and dust to dust. In the pres