Father Burrowes, or the
Reverend Father as he is called, is preaching in the north of
England at the moment, and Brother Dunstan tells me it is quite
impossible for him to say anything, still less to do anything,
about my admission. However, he urged me to stay on for the present
as a guest, an invitation which I accepted without hesitation. He
had only just time to show me my cell and the card of rules for
guests when a bell rang and, drawing his cowl over his head, he
hurried off.
After perusing the rules, I discovered that this was the bell which
rings a quarter of an hour before Vespers for solemn silence. I
hadn't the slightest idea where the chapel was, and when I asked
Brother Lawrence he glared at me and put his finger to his mouth. I
was not to be discouraged, however, and in the end he showed me
into the ante-chapel which is curtained off from the quire. There
was only one other person in the ante-chapel, a florid,
well-dressed man with a rather mincing and fussy way of
worshipping. The monks led by Brother Lawrence (who is not even a
novice yet, but a postulant and wears a black habit, without a
hood, tied round the waist with a rope) passed from the refectory
through the ante-chapel into the quire, and Vespers began.
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