“Since you ask it of a fellow worm.”
“But what can I do? I want to be up and doing.”
“Keep out of temptation. Avoid the causeway after vespers. Meanwhile I will enrol thy name as an associate of the Order, and thou shalt go forth as Francis did, while not yet quite separated from the world. Do you know the story of the leper?”
“Tell it me.”
“One day the saint, not yet a saint, only trying to be one, met one of these wretched beings. At first he shuddered. Then, remembering that he who would serve Christ must conquer self, he dismounted from his horse, kissed the leper’s hand, and filled it with money. Then he went on his road, but looked back to see what had become of the leper, and lo! he had disappeared, although the country was quite plain, without any means of concealment.”
“What had become of him?”
“That I cannot tell thee. Francis thought afterwards it was an angel, if not the Blessed Lord Himself.”
“May I visit the lepers tomorrow?”
“The disease is infectious.”
“What of that?” said Martin, unconsciously imitating his friend Hubert.