justify the title of the short story The Robe Of Peace
Answers
Have you ever lost touch with a friend? Maybe you just kind of grew apart or had a falling out. Or maybe, as is the case in O. Henry's ''The Robe of Peace,'' that friend just seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth. In O. Henry's story, Johnny Bellchambers seemed to vanish into thin air. It's not like Bellchambers was an easy person to miss, either. As a man with ''high position in the ranks of society,'' Bellchambers was very well-known and popular. He was especially known for his fashion sense. Bellchambers' style was always perfect - especially his pants. Only perfect pants would do for him; he wouldn't be caught wearing pants with any kind of wear, patches, or wrinkles. To accomplish this, he would change outfits every three hours.
You can imagine that the disappearance of such a high-profile man was pretty shocking. He left no trail or clue to his whereabouts. His friends couldn't find any reason for his disappearance: ''he had no enemies, he had no debts, there was no woman.'' There was even a substantial amount of money left behind in his bank account! Truly strange behavior for a man who ''was of a particularly calm and well-balanced temperament.''
Found
It's been about a year since Bellchambers' mysterious disappearance, and at last, his friends discover some answers. These answers come about because a couple of Bellchambers' New Yorker friends, Tom Eyres and Lancelot Gilliam, decide to take a side trip. They've been spending time in Italy and Switzerland when they hear about a monastery in the Alps that's off the beaten path. This monastery supposedly has three things going for it: it makes good liquor, has a brass bell so perfect it has ''not ceased sounding since it was first rung three hundred years ago,'' and people claim no Englishman has ever visited it. These three reasons are enough to persuade Eyres and Gilliam that the monastery is worth the difficult trip it takes to get there.
It takes two days to get to the monastery, which sits ''upon a frozen, wind-swept crag with the snow piled about it in treacherous, drifting masses.'' Their welcome is decidedly warmer than the weather outside, and they enjoy the cordial, or liquor, and the sound of the bell. But their visit takes a turn for the strange when they witness the monks of the monastery filing past. While they're watching, Eyres grabs Gilliam and points at one of the monks - is it Bellchambers?