The guest-room like everything else in the monastery is
match-boarded; and while I was waiting in it the noise was
terrific, because some corrugated iron was being nailed on the roof
of a building just outside. I began to regret that Brother Lawrence
had opened the door at all and that he had not left me in the
cloisters, as by the way I discovered that the space enclosed by
the three tin tabernacles is called! There was nothing to read in
the guest-room except one sheet of a six months' old newspaper
which had been spread on the table presumably for a guest to mend
something with glue. At last the Reverend Brother, looking most
beautiful in a white habit with a zucchetto of mauve velvet, came
in and welcomed me with much friendliness. I was surprised to find
somebody so young as Brother Dunstan in charge of a monastery,
especially as he said he was only a novice as yet. It appears that
all the bigwigs--or should I say big-cowls?--are away at the moment
on business of the Order and that various changes are in the
offing, the most important being the giving up of their branch in
Malta and the consequent arrival of Brother George, of whom
Brother Dunstan spoke in a hushed voice.
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