"
"I'm sorry too," said Mark. "But I thought you would prefer frankness.
If you will spare me a few minutes, I'll explain why I want to join the
Order of St. George. If when you've heard what I have to say you still
think that I'm not suitable, I shall recognize your right to be of that
opinion from your experience of many young men like myself who have been
tried and found wanting."
"Did you learn that speech by heart?" the Superior inquired, raising his
eyebrows mockingly.
"I see you're determined to find fault," Mark laughed. "But, Reverend
Father, surely you will listen to my reasons before deciding against
them or me?"
"My instinct tells me you'll be no good to us. But if you insist on
wasting my time, fire ahead. Only please remember that, though I may be
a monk, I'm a very busy man."
Mark gave a full account of himself until the present and wound up by
saying:
"I don't think I have any sentimental reasons for wanting to enter a
monastery. I like working among soldiers and sailors. I am ready to put
down L200 and I hope to be of use. I wish to be a priest, and if you
find or I find that when the time comes for me to be ordained I shall
make a better secular priest, at any rate, I shall have had the
advantage of a life of discipline and you, I promise, will have had a
novice who will have regarded himself as such, but yet will have learnt
somehow to have justified your confidence.
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