being a little presumptuous. Of course, I have no doubt
whatever that St. Peter would take me under his protection, for if you
remember he was a modest saint, a very modest saint indeed who asked to
be crucified upside down, not liking to show the least sign of
competition with our dear Lord. I should very much like to call myself
Brother Paul, because at the school I was at we were taken twice a year
to see St. Paul's Cathedral and had toffee when we came home. I look
back to those days as some of the happiest of my life. There again it
does seem to be putting yourself up rather to take the name of a great
saint like St. Paul. Then I thought of taking William after the little
St. William of Norwich who was murdered by the Jews. That seems going to
the other extreme, doesn't it, for though I know that out of the mouths
of babes and sucklings shall come forth praise, one would like to feel
one had for a patron saint somebody a little more conspicuous than a
baby. I wish you'd give me a word of advice. I think about this problem
until sometimes my head's in a regular whirl, and I lose my place in the
Office. Only yesterday at Sext, I found myself saying the antiphon
proper to St. Peter a fortnight after St. Peter's day had passed and
gone, which seems to show that my mind is really set upon being Brother
Peter, doesn't it? And yet I don't know. He is so very conspicuous all
through the Gospels, isn't he?"

"Then why don't you compromise," suggested Mark, "and call yourself
Brother Simon?"

"Oh, what a splendid idea!" Brother Walter exclaimed, clapping his
hands. "Oh, thank you, Brother Mark. That has solved all my
difficulties. Oh, do let me pull up that thistle for you."

Brother Walter the probationer resumed his weeding with joyful ferocity
of purpose, his mind at peace in the expectation of shortly becoming
Brother Simon the postulant.

What Mark enjoyed most in his personal relations with the community were
the walks on Sunday afternoons. Sir Charles Horner made a habit of
joining these to obtain the Abbey gossip and also because he took
pleasure in hearing himself hold forth on the management of his estate.
Most of his property was woodland, and the walks round Malford possessed
that rich intimacy of the English countryside at its best. Mark was not
much interested in what Sir Charles had to ask or in what Sir Charles
had to tell or in what Sir Charles had to show, but to find himself
walking with his monastic b