ter the two were left alone.

* * * * *

It was very strange to be there, in the vast house and church, and to
live the old life now stripped of three-fourths of its meaning; but they
did not allow one detail to suffer that it was possible to preserve. The
_opus Dei_ was punctually done, and God was served in psalmody. At the
proper hours the two priests met in the cloister, cowled and in their
choir-shoes, and walked through to the empty stalls; and there, one on
either side, each answered the other, bowed together at the _Gloria_,
confessed and absolved alternately. Two masses were said each day in the
huge lonely church, one at the high altar and the other at our Lady's,
and each monk served the other. In the refectory one read from the
pulpit as the other sat at the table; and the usual forms were observed
with the minutest care. In the chapter each morning they met for mutual
confession and accusation; and in the times between the exercises and
meals each worked feverishly at the details that alone made the life
possible.

They were assisted in this by two paid servants, who were sent to them
by Chris's father, for both the lay-brothers and the servants had gone
with the rest; and the treasurer had disappeared with the money.

Chris had written to Sir James the day that the last monk had gone,
telling him the state of affairs, and how the larder was almost empty;
and by the next evening the servants had arrived with money and
provisions; and a letter from Sir James written from a sick-bed, saying
that he was unable to come for the present, for he had taken the fever,
and that Morris would not leave him, but expressing a hope that he would
come soon in person, and that Morris should be sent in a few days. The
latter ended with passionate approval of his son's action.

"God bless and reward you, dear lad!" he had written. "I cannot tell you
the joy that it is to my heart to know that you are faithful. It cannot
be for long; but whether it is for long and short, you shall have my
prayers and blessings; and please God, my poor presence too after a few
days. May our Lady and your holy patron intercede for you both who are
so worthy of their protection!"

* * * * *

At the end of the second week in March Mr. Morris arrived.

Chris was taking the air in the court shortly before sunset, after a
hard day's work in church. The land was beginning to stir wi