"When do you leave?" the Father Superior asked.
"I meant to wait until after nones so as to say good-by to Philip."
"I prefer that you should go at once."
"You mean that you prefer that I should not see him?" Maurice demanded
quickly.
"I merely said that I prefer that you should go at once," was the cold
reply.
Maurice rose briskly. His impulse was to retort sharply, but he held
himself in check.
"Very well," he answered. "I shall take it as a favor if you will let
Philip know that I did not willingly leave him without a word. It would
hurt him to think that."
"The wounds of earth," the Father Superior said gravely, "are the joys
of heaven."
Maurice stood an instant with a keen desire to reply, to break down
this icy statue of religion; then he drew back.
"I will not trouble you longer," he said. "Good-by."
"Good-by, Mr. Wynne," the other responded with the manner of one
addressing a stranger.
Maurice went to his chamber thoroughly aroused and excited. The
restraint which he had put on himself during the talk with Father
Frontford brought now its reaction. He rehearsed in his mind the
telling and caustic things which he might have said, then laughed at
himself for his unnecessary fervor.
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