Going forth in the mellow sunshine, he turned his steps to a garden
of vegetables where he saw monks at work. They gave him gentle
greeting, and one, he who had brought the volume yesterday,
announced that the abbot invited Basil to visit him after the office
of the third hour. Thereupon all worked in silence, he watching
them.
When the time came, he was conducted to the abbot's dwelling, which
was the tower beside the ancient gateway of the Arx. It contained
but two rooms, one above the other; below, the founder of the
monastery studied and transacted business; in the upper chamber he
prayed and slept. When, in reply to his knock at the study door, the
voice, now familiar, but for that no less impressive, bade him come
forward, Basil felt his heart beat quickly; and when he stood alone
in that venerable presence, all his new-born self-confidence fell
away from him. Beholding the aged man seated at a table on which lay
books, amid perfect stillness, in the light from a large window;
before him a golden cross, and, on either side of it, a bowl of
sweet-scented flowers; he seemed only now to remember that this was
that Benedict whose fame had gone forth into many lands, whose
holiness already numbered him with the blessed saints rather than
with mortal men, of whom were recounted things miraculous.
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