At Telepylus 317
broken. But Lamus had already left the table. Athena
explained that the theory of meals in the Abbey was
that they were deplorable interruptions to work, and
that ‘‘ Will ’’ was said before beginning to eat in order
to emphasise the fact that the only excuse for eating
was that it was necessary to keep one’s body in con-
dition to assist one in the performance of the Great
Work, whatever that might be in any particular case.
When any one had finished he or she got up and went
away without ceremony, the interruption being over.
Lamus now came out of the house in a flannel shirt
and buckskin riding breeches. He sat down and began
to drink his coffee and Benedictine. He was smoking
a thin, black cigar, so strong that its very appearance
was alarming.
“IT hope you'll excuse me this afternoon,” he said,
“ T have to go and inspect the other houses. This house
is the antechamber, so to speak, where we receive
strangers. In the other houses, various courses of
training are carried on according to the Wills of their
inhabitants. You will sleep here, of course, and con-
sidering the reason for which you have come—No,
Dionysus, this isn’t the time to say ‘He shall fall down
into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish
with the dogs of Reason’—I will sleep down here for
the present instead of in my lonely little tower, as I
usually do.”
We noticed that Cypris and the boys had slipped
away quietly; but Athena sat engrossed in studying
us,
** In the absence of Lala,’ he said, ‘‘ Sister Athena is
our chief psychologist. You will find her knowledge
very useful to you and your work. I will leave her to
talk things over with you for the next couple of hours.
But, of course, the first thing is to get you rested from
your journey.”
He got up and walked off round the corner of the
house. We didn’t feel that we needed rest, we were
much too interested by the atmosphere of the place.