They passed on tip-toe to the passage leading to the street, where some flickering gleams of the light without fell over them.
“Where's your hat?” said John.
“I forgot that too—I left it in the church.”
“Take mine,” said John, “and put up your hood and button your cassock—it's a cruel night.”
“But I'm afraid,” said Paul.
“Afraid of what?”
“Now that the time has come I'm afraid to learn the truth about her. After all uncertainty is hope, you know, and then——”
“Tut! Be a man! Don't give way at the last moment. Here, tie my handkerchief about your neck! How helpless you are, though! I've half a mind to go myself instead.”
“But you don't know what I want to say, and if you did you couldn't say it.”
“Then listen! Are you listening?”