appointment. You have got a clear forty minutes before the Angelus
rings," he added, consulting a large silver chronometer, "and I reckon
I kin git through my part of the job inside of twenty, leaving you ten
minutes for remarks. I want to confess."

Father Pedro drew back with a gesture of dignity. The stranger, however,
laid his hand upon the Padre's sleeve with the air of a man anticipating
objection, but never refusal, and went on.

"Of course, I know. You want me to come at some other time, and in
THERE. You want it in the reg'lar style. That's your way and your time.
My answer is: it ain't MY way and MY time. The main idea of confession,
I take it, is gettin' at the facts. I'm ready to give 'em if you'll
take 'em out here, now. If you're willing to drop the Church and
confessional, and all that sort o' thing, I, on my side, am willing
to give up the absolution, and all that sort o' thing. You might," he
added, with an unconscious touch of pathos in the suggestion, "heave in
a word or two of advice after I get through; for instance, what YOU'D do
in the circumstances, you see! That's all. But that's as you please. It
ain't part of the business."

Irreverent as this speech appeared, there was really no trace of such
intention in his manner, and his evident profound conviction that
his suggestion was practical, and not at all inconsistent with
ecclesiastical dignity, would alone have been enough to touch the Padre,
had not the stranger's dominant personality already overridden him. He
hesitated. The stranger seized the opportunity to take his arm, and lead
him with the half familiarity of powerful protection to a bench beneath
the refectory window. Taking out his watch again, he put it in the
passive hands of the astonished priest, saying, "Time me," cleared his