Please forgive me for speaking like this,
but I love you and respect you, and I cannot bear to see you put
yourself in the wrong."
The Prior patted Mark on the shoulder.
"Cheer up, Brother," he said. "You mustn't mind if I think that I know
better than you what is good for the Community. I have had a longer time
to learn, you must remember. And so you're going to leave us?"
"Yes, but I don't want to talk about that now," Mark said.
"Nor do I," said Brother George. "I want to get on with my ploughing."
Mark saw that it was as useless to argue with him as attempt to persuade
the chaplain to stay. He turned sadly away, and walked back with heavy
steps towards the Abbey. Overhead, the larks, rising and falling upon
their fountains of song, seemed to mock the way men worshipped Almighty
God.
CHAPTER XXIX
SUBTRACTION
Mark had not spent a more unhappy Easter since the days of Haverton
House. He was oppressed by the sense of excommunication that brooded
over the Abbey, and on the Saturday of Passion Week the versicles and
responses of the proper Compline had a dreadful irony.
_V. O King most Blessed, govern Thy servants in the right way._
_R. Among Thy Saints, O King most Blessed._
_V. By holy fasts to amend our sinful lives.
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