h, my son," he said. "Remember he does not
understand."

"He should not speak like that," said Chris fiercely. "How dare he do
so?"

"Of course he should not; but he does not know that. He thinks he is
advising you well. You must let him alone, Chris. You must remember he
is almost mad with business. Master Cromwell works him hard."

* * * * *

The chapel was but dimly lighted as Chris made his way up to the high
gallery at the west where he usually knelt. The altar glimmered in the
dusk at the further end, and only a couple of candles burned on the
priest's kneeling stool on the south side. The rest was dark, for the
house hold knew compline by heart; and even before Chris reached his
seat he heard the blessing asked for a quiet night and a perfect end. It
was very soothing to him as he leaned over the oak rail and looked down
on the dim figures of his parents in their seat at the front, and the
heads of the servants below, and listened to the quiet pulsation of
those waves of prayer going to and fro in the dusk, beating, as a summer
tide at the foot of a cliff against those white steps that rose up to
the altar where a single spark winked against the leaded window beneath
the silk-shrouded pyx. He had come home full of excitement and joy at
his first sight of an ecstatic, and at the message that she had seemed
to have for him, and across these heightened perceptions had jarred the
impatience of his brother in the inn at Begham and in the carriage on
their way home, and above all his sharp criticism and aloofness in the
parlour just now. But he became quieter as he knelt now; the bitterness
seamed to sink beneath him and to leave him alone in a world of
peaceful glory--the world of mystic life to which his face was now set,
illuminated by the words of the nun. He had seen one who could see
further than he himself; he had looked upon eyes that were fixed on
mysteries and realms in which he indeed passionately believed, but which
were apt to be faint and formless sometimes to the weary eyes of faith
alone; and as a proof that these were more than fancies she had told him
too of what he could verify--of the priory at Lewes which she had never
visited, and even the details of the ring on the Prior's finger which he
alone of the two had seen. And then lastly she had encouraged him in his
desires, had seen him with those same wide eyes in the habit that he
longed to wear, going about the ps