Alleluia._
scarcely could they who chanted the versicle challenge with their eyes
those who hung down their heads when they gave the response.
* * * * *
The hour of recreation before Compline, which upon great Feasts was wont
to be so glad, lay heavily upon the brethren that night, so that Mark
could not bear to sit in the Cloister; there being no guests in the
Abbey for his attention, he sat in the library and wrote to the Rector.
The Abbey,
Malford, Surrey.
Easter Sunday.
My dear Rector,
I should have written before to wish you all a happy Easter, but
I've been making up my mind during the last fortnight to leave the
Order, and I did not want to write until my mind was made up. That
feat is now achieved. I shall stay here until St. George's Day, and
then the next day, which will be St. Mark's Eve, I shall come home
to spend my birthday with you. I do not regret the year and six
months that I have spent at Malford and Aldershot, because during
that time, if I have decided not to be a monk, I am none the less
determined to be a priest. I shall be 23 this birthday, and I hope
that I shall find a Bishop to ordain me next year and a Theological
College to accept responsibility for my training and a beneficed
priest to give me a title.
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