g and
Evening Prayer."

"That must have upset the Bishop," said Mark. "I suppose he resigned
his bishopric."

"I should have thought that you, Brother Mark, would have been the last
one to take the part of a bishop when he persecutes a Catholic priest!"

"I'm not taking the part of the Bishop," Mark replied. "But I think it
was a silly remark for a curate to make. It merely put him in the wrong,
and gave the Bishop an opportunity to score."

The Prior had questioned the policy of engaging Andrew Hett as Chaplain,
even for so brief a period as a month. He argued that, inasmuch as the
Bishop of Silchester had twice refused to licence him to parishes in the
diocese, it would prejudice the Bishop against the Order of St. George,
and might lead to his inhibiting the Father Superior later on, should an
excuse present itself.

"Nonsense, my dear Brother George," said the Reverend Father. "He won't
know anything about it officially, and in any case ours is a private
oratory, where refusals to licence and episcopal inhibitions have no
effect."

"That's not my point," argued Brother George. "My point is that any
communication with a notorious ecclesiastical outlaw like this fellow
Hett is liable to react unfavourably upon us. Why can't we get down
somebody else? There must be a number of unemployed elderly priests who
would be glad of the holiday."

"I'm afraid that I've offered Hett the job now, so let us make up our
minds to be content."

Mark, who was doing secretarial work for the Reverend Father, happened
to be present during this conversation, which distressed him, because it
showed him that the Prior was still at variance with the Abbot, a state
of affairs that was ultimately bound to be disastrous for the Community.
He withdrew almost immediately on some excuse to the Superior's inner
room, whence he intended to go downstairs to the Porter's Lodge until
the Prior was gone. Unfortunately, the door of the inner room was
locked, and before he could explain what had happened, a conversation
had begun which he could not help overhearing, but which he dreaded to
interrupt.

"I'm afraid, dear Brother George," the Reverend Father was saying, "I'm
very much afraid that you are beginning to think I have outlived my
usefulness as Superior of the Order."

"I've never suggested that," Brother George replied angrily.

"You may not have meant to give that impression, but certainly that is
what you have succeeded in making