the history of the
Order. At last the Father Superior asked Brother Anselm if he did not
intend to speak.

"What can I say?" asked Brother Anselm bitterly. "Last year I should
have been true to myself and voted against the closing of the Sandgate
house. I was silent then in my egoism. I am not fit to defend our house
now."

"But I will," cried Brother Chad, rising. "Begging your pardon, Reverend
Father and Brethren, if I am speaking too soon, but I cannot believe
that you seriously consider closing us down. We're just beginning to get
on well with the authorities, and we've a regular lot of communicants
now. We began as just a Club, but we're something more than a Club now.
We're bringing men to Our Lord, Brethren. You will do a great wrong if
you let those poor souls think that for the sake of your own comfort you
are ready to forsake them. Forgive me, Reverend Father. Forgive me, dear
Brethren, if I have said too much and spoken uncharitably."

"He has not spoken uncharitably enough," Brother Athanasius shouted,
rising to his feet, and as he did so unconsciously assuming the attitude
of a boxer. "If I'd been here last year, I should have spoken much more
uncharitably. I did not join this Order to sit about playing with
vestments. I wanted to bring soldiers to God. If this Order is to be
turned into a kind of male nunnery, I'm off to-morrow. I'm boiling over,
that's what I am, boiling over. If we can't afford to do what we should
be doing, we can't afford to build gatehouses, and lay out flower-beds,
and sit giggling in tin cloisters. It's the limit, that's what it is,
the limit."

Brother Athanasius stood there flushed with defiance, until the Father
Superior told him to sit down and not make a fool of himself, a command
which, notwithstanding that the feeling of the Chapter had been so far
entirely against the head of the Order, such was the Father Superior's
authority, Brother Athanasius immediately obeyed.

Brother Dominic now rose to try, as he said, to bring an atmosphere of
reasonableness into the discussion.

"I do not think that I can be accused of inconsistency," he pointed out
smoothly, "when we look back to our general Chapter of a year ago.
Whatever my personal feelings were about closing the Sandgate priory, I
recognized at once that the Reverend Father was right. There is really
no doubt that we must be strong at the roots before we try to grow into
a tall tree. However flourishing the branches, t