A while to our discourse?--he never joins.

_2nd Monk_.
I know quite well. I stood beside him once,
Some of the brethren near; Stephen was talking:
He chanced to say the words, _Our Holy Faith_.
"Their faith indeed, poor fools!" fell from his lips,
Half-muttered, and half-whispered, as the words
Had wandered forth unbidden. I am sure
He is an atheist at the least.

_3rd Monk (pale-faced and large-eyed_).
And I
Fear he is something worse. I had a trance
In which the devil tempted me: the shape
Was Julian's to the very finger-nails.
_Non nobis, Domine_! I overcame.
I am sure of one thing--music tortures him:
I saw him once, amid the _Gloria Patri_,
When the whole chapel trembled in the sound,
Rise slowly as in ecstasy of pain,
And stretch his arms abroad, and clasp his hands,
Then slowly, faintingly, sink on his knees.

_2nd Monk_.
He does not know his rubric; stands when others
Are kneeling round him. I have seen him twice
With his missal upside down.

_4th Monk (plethoric and husky_).