'I'm not going to tell you my inmost soul. This I can say, if I have had temptations I have conquered them. They have passed away.' The conversation paused, and, in a silence which was pregnant with suggestion, they went up to the organ-loft, and he depreciated the present instrument and enlarged upon some technical details anent the latest modern improvements in keys and stops. He would play his setting of St. Ambrose's hymn, 'Veni redemptor gentium,' if Mr. Hare would go to the bellows; and feeling as if he were being turned into ridicule, Mr. Hare took his place at the handle. In the sacristy the consideration of the censers, candle-sticks, chalices, and albs took some time, and John was a little aggressive in his explanation of Catholic ceremonial, and its grace and comeliness compared with the stiffness and materialism of the Protestant service. Handsome lads of sixteen were chosen for acolytes; the torch-bearers were selected from the smallest boys, the office of censer was filled by himself, and he was also the chief sacristan, and had charge of the altar plate and linen and the vestments. In answer to Mr. Hare, who asked him if he did not weary of the narrowness of ecclesiastical life, John said that when the desire of travel came upon him, he had to consult no one's taste or convenience but his own, merely to pack his portmanteau. Last year he had been through Russia, and had enjoyed his stay in Constantinople. And while speaking of the mosques he said that he had had an ancestor who had fought in the crusades. Perhaps it was from him he had inherited his love and comprehension of Byzantine art--he did not say so, but it might be so; one of the mysteries of atavism! Who shall say where they end? 'You would have liked to have fought in the crusades?' 'Yes, I think that I should have made a good knight. The hardships they underwent were no doubt quite extraordinary. But I am strong; my bones are heavy; my chest is deep; I can bear a great deal of fatigue.' Then laughing lightly he said: 'You can't imagine me as a knight on the way to the Grail.' 'Why not? I think you would have acquitted yourself very well.' 'The crusades were once as real in life as tennis parties are to-day; and I think infinitely more beautiful.' 'You would not have fought in the tournaments for a lady love?' 'Perhaps not; I should have fought for the Grail, like Parsifal. I was at Bayreuth last year. But Bayreuth is no longer what it was. Popular innovations have been introduced into the performances. Would you believe it, the lovely music in the cupola, written by Wagner for boys' voices, is now sung by women.' 'Surely a woman's voice is finer than a boy's.' 'It is more powerful, of course; but it has not the same quality--the _timbre_ is so much grosser. Besides, women's voices are opposed to the ecclesiastical spirit.' 'How closely you do run your hobby.'