The Dawn of All Page 39

  (III)

  Monsignor woke next morning, already conscious of a certain senseof well-being, and looked round the little white room in which helay, agreeably expectant.

  * * * * *

  Last night had helped to soothe him a little. He had supped withhis friend in a small parlour downstairs, after having beenwarned not to speak, except in case of absolute necessity, tothe lay-brother who waited on them; and after supper had hadexplained to him more at length what the object of theexpedition really was. It was the custom, he heard, for personssuffering from overstrain or depression, whether physical,mental, or spiritual, to come across to Ireland to one of thoseReligious Houses with which the whole country was covered. Theonly thing demanded of these retreatants was that they shouldobey, absolutely and implicitly, the directions given to themduring their stay, and that their stay should not be less thanfor three full days.

  "We shall not meet after to-night," said Father Jervis, smiling,"I shall be under as strict orders as you."

  After they had parted for the night, the man who had lost hismemory had studied the little book given to him, and had learnedmore or less the system under which Ireland lay. The wholeisland, he learned, was the absolute and inalienable possession,held under European guarantees, of the enclosed Religious Orders,with whose dominion no interference was allowed. All the businessoffices of the country and the ports of the enormous agriculturalindustries were concentrated in Dublin and Belfast; the rest ofthe island was cultivated, ruled, and cared for by the monksthemselves. (He read drearily through the pages of statisticsshowing how once again, as in medieval days, under the labour ofmonks the land had blossomed out into material prosperity; andhow this prosperity still increased, year by year, beyond allreckoning.) Of men, there were the Carthusians, the Carmelites,the Trappists, and certain sections of Benedictines; of women,there were the Carmelites, the Poor Clares, the Augustiniancanonesses, and certain other Benedictines. Special arrangementsbetween these regulated the division of the land and of theresponsibilities; and the Central Council consisted of theProcurators and other representatives of the various bodies.

  In return for the possession of the land, and for the protectionguaranteed by the European governments, one, and one only demandwas made--namely, that a certain accommodation should beoffered--the amount determined by agreement year by year--bothfor these Retreat-houses in general, and for what were called"Hospitals-of-God" in particular. These hospitals were nothingelse in reality than enormous establishments for the treatment ofthe mentally unbalanced; for it had been found by recentexperience that the atmosphere supremely successful in suchcases--especially those of certain well-marked types--was theatmosphere of the strongest and most intense religion. Statisticshad shown without a doubt that, even apart from cases of actualpossession (a phenomenon perfectly recognized now by allscientists), minds that were merely weak or subject to mentaldelusions recovered incalculably more quickly and surely in theatmosphere of a Religious House than in any other. These casestoo were isolated with the greatest care, owing to theextraordinary discoveries recently made, and verified over andover again in the realm of "mental infection."

  So Monsignor had learned last night; and as he lay in his littlewhite room this morning, waiting for the instructions that, hehad been informed, would arrive before he need get up, it seemedthat even to his own tortured brain some breath of relief hadalready come. The world seemed perfectly still. Once from faraway he heard the note of a single deep-toned bell; but, for therest, there was silence. There was no footstep in the house, nofootstep outside. From where he lay he could see out through hislow window into a tiny high-walled court, white like his ownroom, except where the level lawn ran to the foot of the wall anda row of tawny autumn flowers rose against it. Above the whitecarved parapet opposite ran skeins of delicate cloud against thesoft blue sky. It was strange, he thought, to be conscious inthis utter solitude and silence of an incomparable peace. . . .

  When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the hooded lay brotherhad come in while he dozed, and had begun to set the room torights. A door, white like the wall, which he had not noticedlast night, stood open opposite his bed, and he caught sight of atiny bathroom beyond. A little fire of wood was leaping in thewhite-tiled chimney; and before it stood a table. The window toowas set open, and the pleasant autumn air streamed in.

  Then the brother came up to the bedside, his face invisible underthe peaked hood that hung over it. He uttered a sentence or two inLatin, bidding him get up and dress. He was not to say Mass thismorning. "Father" would come in as soon as he had breakfasted andgive him his instructions for the day. That was all.

  Monsignor got out of bed and went into the bathroom, where hisclothes were already arranged. When he came back a quarter of anhour later, he found a tray set out with simple food and milk onthe table beside the fire. As he finished and said grace the dooropened noiselessly, and a priest in the Carthusian habit came in,closing the door behind him.