Something out of place. Something untrue or out of round. Not some cause. I can tell you that. Not some cause.
Causes only multiply themselves.
They lead to chaos. What I wanted was to know his mind. What he finds instead is his own Job in the form of the old pensioner, and in considering the tale he is about to relate to Billy he claims for it the status of myth, the ur-story that is all stories. By extension, the pensioner becomes all subjects, everyman. The priest becomes all narrators.