Early in
June Sir Charles Horner introduced another young man called Aubrey Wyon,
whom he had met at Venice in May.
"Take a little trouble over entertaining him," Sir Charles counselled.
And then, looking round to see that no thieves or highwaymen were
listening, he whispered to Mark that Wyon had money. "He would be an
asset, I fancy. And he's seriously thinking of joining you," the baronet
declared.
To tell the truth, Sir Charles who was beginning to be worried by the
financial state of the Order of St. George, would at this crisis have
tried to persuade the Devil to become a monk if the Devil would have
provided a handsome dowry. He had met Aubrey Wyon at an expensive hotel,
had noticed that he was expensively dressed and drank good wine, had
found that he was interested in ecclesiastical religion, and, having
bragged a bit about the land he had presented to the Order of St.
George, had inspired Wyon to do some bragging of what he had done for
various churches.
"If I could find happiness at Malford," Wyon had said, "I would give
them all that I possess."
Sir Charles had warned the Father Superior that he would do well to
accept Wyon as a probationer, should he propose himself; and the Father
Superior, who was by now as anxious for money as a company-promoter,
made himself as pleasant to Wyon as he knew how, flattering him
carefully and giving voice to his dreams for the great stone Abbey to be
built here in days to come.
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