ST PRESERVED GREEK TEMPLE IN THE WORLD, THE THES&UM : ATHENS, GREECE 



objects offered for sale. And there was 

 one more office in the church, to which I 

 fear I would not have gone if a kind 

 father had not hunted me up. The Vir- 

 gin under her parasol, the silver orange 

 tree, and other precious furniture had 

 disappeared. The afternoon sun streamed 

 through the high transept windows, 

 bringing out the pattern of the marble 

 floor, the rich carving of the altar screen, 

 details of the pictured walls. 



THE NIGHT-LONG VTGIl/s END 



It brought out, too, the faces of the 

 fathers under their black veils, worn and 

 haggard after the night-long vigil. At a 

 moment of the office one after another 

 lighted a wax candle from that of his 



neighbor. The two semicircles twinkled 

 pallidly enough at each other across the 

 sun-touched splendor of the church. The 

 incense, that had been so heady the night 

 before, somehow missed its effect, like the 

 candles. A swallow flashed across the 

 opposite window. 



I thought of the green hill I had 

 climbed that afternoon, blossoming with 

 asphodel, and how the sea looked through 

 the leaning olive trees. I wondered what 

 the fathers thought, chanting so gravely 

 in the spring afternoon — if they, too, saw 

 hills, or seas, or faces other than haggard 

 ones under black monastic veils. With 

 the sound of their chant an unsanctified 

 crooning of pigeons suddenly began to 

 minele from the court without. 



