“Why—in Heaven’s name?”
“I have no choice.”
“But it’s absurd. You are almost a priest.”
“The Bar. That is my bourne.”
“Lawyers are the most ignorant, awful people.”
“I cannot claim superiority.” He laughed bitterly.
“But you can; you are. You can never be a lawyer.”
“It is necessary to do one’s duty. Occupation does not matter.”
“There you are; you’re a Jesuit already,” said Miriam angrily, seeing the figure at her side shrouded in a habit, wrapped in tranquillity, pacing along a cloister, lost to her. But if he stayed in the world and became a lawyer he would be equally lost to her.
“I have been ... mad,” he muttered; “a madman ... nothing but the cloister can give me peace—nothing but the cloister.”