The
cheeks were gaunt and livid, the flesh hanging in loose hollows from
the high and prominent bones, yet the mouth was that of a youth,
firm, well-outlined and sweet in expression, and when he smiled as
he did now, he showed an even row of small pearly teeth which might
have been envied by many a fair woman.
"Only God who is never weary!" he said, nodding his head slowly,
"but we--you and I--we are soon tired!"
Varillo looked at him dubiously; and a moment's thought decided him
to assume a certain amount of meekness and docility with this
evident brother of some religious order, so that he might obtain
both sympathy and confidence from him, and from all whom he might be
bound to serve. Ill and weak as he was, the natural tendency of his
brain to scheme for his own advantage, was not as yet impaired.
"Ah, yes!" he sighed, "I am very tired!--very ill! I do not know
what has happened to me--nor even where I am. What place is this?"
"It is a place where the dead come!" responded the monk. "The dead
in heart! the dead in soul--the dead in sin! They come to bury
themselves, lest God should find them and crush them into dust
before they have time to say a prayer! Like Adam and his wife, they
hide themselves 'from the presence of the Lord among the trees of
the garden.
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