Now, sir, what would you have done in my place?"
He wagged his face fiercely from side to side.
Mr. John put his hand over his eyes and nodded without speaking. Robin
sat silent: it was not only for priests, it seemed, that life presented
a tangle.
II
The evening before the two left for the north again, Mr. Bassett took
them both into his own study. It was a little room opening out of his
bedroom, and was more full of books than Robin had ever seen, except in
the library at Rheims, in any room in the world. A shelf ran round the
room, high on the wall, and was piled with manuscripts to the ceiling.
Beneath, the book-shelves that ran nearly round the room were packed
with volumes, and a number more lay on the table and even in the
corners.
"This is my own privy chamber," said Mr. Bassett to the priest. "My
other friends have seen it many a time, but I thought I would show it to
your Reverence, too."
Robin looked round him in wonder: he had no idea that his host was a man
of such learning.
"All the books are ranged in their proper places," went on the other. "I
could put my finger on any of them blind-fold. But this is the shelf I
wished you to see."
He took him to one that was behind the door, holding up the candle that
he might see. The shelf had a box or two on it, besides books, and these
he opened and set on the table. Robin looked in, as he was told, but
could understand nothing that he saw: in one was a round ball of crystal
on a little gold stand, wrapped round in velvet; in another some kind of
a machine with wheels; in a third, some dried substances, as of herbs,
tied together with silk.
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