Page:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Huebsch 1916).djvu/187

 around the walls and his mind wandered from one guess to another until the meaning of the summons had almost become clear. Then, just as he was wishing that some unforeseen cause might prevent the director from coming, he had heard the handle of the door turning and the swish of a.

The director had begun to speak of the Dominican and Franciscan orders and of the friendship between Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure. The dress, he thought, was rather too....

Stephen's face gave back the priest's indulgent smile and, not being anxious to give an opinion, he made a slight dubitative movement with his lips.

—I believe, continued the director,—that there is some talk now among the Capuchins themselves of doing away with it and following the example of the other Franciscans.—

—I suppose they would retain it in the cloisters?— said Stephen.

—O certainly,—said the director.—For the cloister it is all right but for the street I really think it would be better to do away with, don't you?—

—It must be troublesome, I imagine.—

—Of course it is, of course. Just imagine when I was in Belgium I used to see them out cycling in all kinds of weather with this thing up about their knees! It was really ridiculous. Les jupes, they call them in Belgium.—

The vowel was so modified as to be indistinct.

— What do they call them?—

—Les jupes.—

—O!—

Stephen smiled again in answer to the smile which he [179]