after which he returned to the most populous districts and ordered _vermouth_ and a sort of mixture of dregs in various cafés. Eight o’clock struck. He walked very erect, with a steady, rigid, solemn gait; he was astonished when women, running to buy provisions, with bare head and their hair twisted in a knot low on the neck, ran against him with their heavy baskets, or when he came into collision with some small girl grasping an enormous loaf in her arms. Still, at times, if he crossed the road the milkman’s cart, with its clinking, rattling tin cans, would pull up so close to him that he could feel the horse’s warm breath on his cheek. But he continued his way unhasting and careless of the imprecations of the rustic milk-vendor. His gait, secure of support from his dog-wood stick, was calm and haughty. But internally the old man was staggering. Nothing was left of his early morning gaiety. The lark, whose joyous trills had thrilled through him with his earliest sips of the pale-hued wine, had sped away at a single flight, and now his soul was a murky rookery, where crows croaked hoarsely upon inky trees. He was mortally sad. A great disgust of himself welled up in his heart. The voice of his repentance, his shame, cried out in him: “Hog, hog! What a hog you are!” And he marvelled at that clear, angry voice, that superb angel’s voice, which spoke mysteriously within himself, repeating: “Hog! hog! What a hog you are!” A yearning desire for innocence and purity woke in him. He wept; great tears fell down on his goat-like beard. He wept over himself. Obedient to the words of his Master, who said, “Weep for yourselves and for your children, O daughters of Jerusalem,” he shed the bitter dew from his downcast eyes upon the body he had delivered up to the seven deadly sins, and upon the obscene fancies born of his drunkenness. The faith of his childhood revived in him, and spread out fresh vigorous tendrils. From his lips pathetic prayers flowed forth. He said under his breath: “O God, grant me to become once more even as the little child which once was I!” At the moment he offered up this simple petition he realized that he was standing under a church porch.