“Is he young?”
“Quite young, and he has left the world, not as Augustine did, after learning by bitter experience the deceitfulness of sin——”
“Then why is he here?”
“He can not trust himself yet. He feels the inward strivings and struggles of our rebellious nature and——”
“Then his solitude and silence are voluntary?”
“Now they are. See,” said the Father, and stooping to the floor he picked up a key that lay at his feet.
“What does that mean?”
“He locks himself in and pushes the key under the door.”
When they entered the cell John Storm was standing by the window in a stream of morning sunlight, looking out on the world below with fixed and yearning eyes.
“This is our Visitor,” said the Father. “The rule of silence is relaxed in his case.”