Summary

Farther joins the narrator and Father Bernard, telling them that Hanny is going to read to the group inside the house. Father Bernard tells the narrator he must get rid of the diary, and then they go inside. However, shifting forward again to the present day, the narrator admits that he never got rid of the diary and has read it many times over the years. He describes the day in which Father Wilfred began to change his behaviors.

Father Wilfred felt a compulsion to go the ocean and believed it was a message from God. However, once there, he felt uneasy, but found comfort in the idea that God has conquered the lonely wilderness. He reflected on the mysteriousness of nature and how that could guide him in the priesthood.

Watching seagulls on the beach, he felt disgust and thought about the “people...