me then that you were not sure you
wanted to be a monk. Rare candour! I could have professed a hundred
monks, had I been willing to profess them within ten minutes of their
first coming to see me."

The Father Superior gave Mark his blessing and dismissed him. Nothing
had been said about the dispute between the Prior and the Chaplain, and
Mark began to wonder if Father Burrowes thought the results of it would
tell more surely in favour of his own influence if he did not allude to
it nor make any attempt to adjudicate upon the point at issue. Now that
he was leaving Malford in little more than a week, Mark felt that he was
completely relieved of the necessity of assisting at any conventual
legislation, and he would gladly have absented himself from the Easter
Chapter, which was held on the Saturday within the Octave, had not
Father Burrowes told him that so long as he wore the habit of a novice
of the Order he was expected to share in every side of the Community's
life.

"Brethren," said the Father Superior, "I have brought you back news that
will gladden your hearts, news that will show I you how by the Grace of
God your confidence in my judgment was not misplaced. Some kind friends
have taken for us the long lease of a splendid house in Soho Square, so
that we may have our priory in London, and resume the active work that
was abandoned temporarily last Christmas. Not only have these kind
friends taken for us this splendid house, but other kind friends have
come forward to guarantee the working expenses up to L20 a week. God is
indeed good to us, brethren, and when I remember that next Thursday is
the Feast of our great Patron Saint, my heart is too full for words.
During the last three or four months there have been unhappy differences
of opinion in our beloved Order. Do let me entreat you to forget all
these in gratitude for God's bountiful mercies. Do let us, with the
arrival once more of our patronal festival, resolve to forget our doubts
and our hesitations, our timidity and our rashness, our suspicions and
our jealousies. I blame myself for much that has happened, because I
have been far away from you, dear brethren, in moments of great
spiritual distress. But this year I hope by God's mercy to be with you
more. I hope that you will never again spend such an Easter as this. I
have only one more announcement to make, which is that I have appointed
Brother Dominic to be Prior of St. George's Priory, Soho Square, an