me feel personally," said the
Superior.

"I have been associated with you long enough to be entitled to express
my opinion in private."

"In private, yes. But are you always careful only to do so in private?
I'm not complaining. My only desire is the prosperity and health of the
Order. Next Christmas I am ready to resign, and let the brethren elect
another Superior-general."

"That's talking nonsense," said the Prior. "You know as well as I do
that nobody else except you could possibly be Superior. But recently I
happen to have had a better opportunity than you to criticize our Mother
House, and frankly I'm not satisfied with the men we have. Few of them
will be any use to us. Birinus, Anselm, Giles, Chad, Athanasius if
properly suppressed, Mark, these in varying degrees, have something in
them, but look at the others! Dominic, ambitious and sly, Jerome, a
pompous prig, Dunstan, a nincompoop, Raymond, a milliner, Nicholas,
a--well, you know what I think Nicholas is, Augustine, another
nincompoop, Lawrence, still at Sunday School, and poor Simon, a clown.
I've had a dozen probationers through my hands, and not one of them was
as good as what we've got. I'm afraid I'm less hopeful of the future
than I was in Canada."

"I notice, dear Brother George," said the Father Superior, "that you are
prejudiced in favour of the brethren who follow your lead with a certain
amount of enthusiasm. That is very natural. But I'm not so pessimistic
about the others as you are. Perhaps you feel that I am forgetting how
much the Order owes to your generosity in the past. Believe me, I have
forgotten nothing. At the same time, you gave your money with your eyes
open. You took your vows without being pressed. Don't you think you owe
it to yourself, if not to the Order or to me personally, to go through
with what you undertook? Your three vows were Chastity, Poverty, and
Obedience."

There was no answer from the Prior; a moment later he shut the door
behind him, and went downstairs alone. Mark came into the room at once.

"Reverend Father," he said. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that I
overheard what you and the Reverend Brother were saying." He went on to
explain how this had happened, and why he had not liked to make his
presence known.

"You thought the Reverend Brother would not bear the mortification with
as much fortitude as myself?" the Father Superior suggested with a faint
smile.

It struck Mark how true this was, and he l