Nor indeed was he such. Malford Abbey was a courtesy
title, and such monastic euphemisms as the Abbot's Parlour and the
Abbot's Lodgings to describe the matchboarded apartments sacred to the
Father Superior, while they might please such ecclesiastical enthusiasts
as Brother Raymond, appealed to Mark as pretentious and somewhat silly.
In fact, if it had not been for the presence of the Bishop of Alberta in
cope and mitre Mark would have found it hard, when after Terce the
brethren assembled in the Chapter-room to hear Brother Anselm make his
final petition, to believe in the reality of what was happening, to
believe, when Brother Anselm in reply to the Father Superior's
exhortation chose the white cowl and scapular (which in the Order of St.
George differentiated the professed monk from the novice) and rejected
the suit of dittos belonging to his worldly condition, that he was
passing through moments of greater spiritual importance than any since
he was baptized or than any he would pass through before he stood upon
the threshold of eternity.
But this was a transient scepticism, a fleeting discontent, which
vanished when the brethren formed into procession and returned to the
oratory singing the psalm: _In Convertendo_.
_When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion: then were we
like unto them, that dream.
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