Hubert thought it was a very bad way to start the day, thinking about all that. But, once he started thinking about all that, he kept on thinking about it, and the end of it was that he arrived at work seven minutes later than usual, but still well ahead of most of the other men, and in a bad mood. He did not mention the dislocation of his morning to anyone. He did not like to give confidences or to receive them, and he disliked being asked questions, and almost never asked anyone a question. His department, staffed all by men, was at the back of the big main floor of the shop, behind the wide, carpeted stairs that led up to the second floor. The ceiling of the main floor was over two stories high, and a balcony had been run around the walls of the men’s outfitting department to create extra room for storing stock and for doing such work as making and checking sample books and checking orders. Today Hubert was to spend his time on the balcony, to begin checking the samples in the books against the amount of material they had in stock. The department did a lot of work with priests, and as he arranged what he wanted to get through in the course of the day, Hubert put clerical samples well out of his way, so that he might not come upon them until tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow. Hubert’s only son, his only child, was a priest, and Hubert disliked being reminded of the fact that John was now Father John Derdon.