In the afternoon I sat reading a short time under the ilex tree, where the Fathers congregate.
I had St.Augustine's _De Opere Monachorum_.

Some people passed on the upper road, talking in loud voices.

I raised my head mechanically.

Then, I cannot tell why, but instead of resuming my reading, I closed the book and fell to thinking.

I thought of what St.Augustine says about manual labour for monks, I thought of the order of St.Benedict, of Rance, and of how the Benedictine order might again return to manual labour.