"By all means!" assented the monk, showing no surprise at the
request. "Follow me to the library, we shall be quite alone
there."

He led the way immediately out of the chapel, and through a stone-
paved vestibule, where they were met by the two brethren who had
first received and entertained the unknown guest, and who, not
finding him in the refectory where they had left him, were now
coming in search of him. On seeing in whose company he was,
however, they drew aside with a deep and reverential obeisance to
the personage called Heliobas--he, silently acknowledging it,
passed on, closely attended by the stranger, till he reached a
spacious, well-lighted apartment, the walls of which were entirely
lined with books. Here, entering and closing the door, he turned
and confronted his visitor--his tall, imposing figure in its
trailing white garments calling to mind the picture of some saint
or evangelist--and with grave yet kindly courtesy, said:

"Now, my friend, I am at your disposal! In what way can Heliobas,
who is dead to the world, serve one for whom surely as yet the
world is everything?"




CHAPTER II.

CONFESSION.