onveyed to an immortal
soul. The words that he had said during these last weeks so mechanically
were now rich and alive again, and as he answered the priest he
perceived the spiritual vibration of them in the inner world of which
his own soul was but a part. And then the climax was reached, and he
lifted the skirt of the vestment with his left hand and shook the bell
in his right; the last shreds of confusion were gone, and his spirit
basked tranquil and content and certain again in the light that was
newly risen on him.

He went to the novice-master after the morning-chapter, and told him
that he had made up his mind to offer himself for profession if it was
thought advisable by the authorities.

* * * * *

Towards the end of August he presented himself once more before the
chapter to make his solemn demand; his petition was granted, and a day
appointed for his profession.

Then he withdrew into yet stricter seclusion to prepare for the step.

CHAPTER IX

LIFE AT LEWES

Under the direction of the junior-master who overlooked the young monks
for some years after their profession, Chris continued his work of
illumination, for which he had shown great aptitude during his year of
noviceship.

The art was beginning to disappear, since the introduction of printing
had superseded the need of manuscript, but in some Religious Houses it
was still thought a suitable exercise during the hours appointed for
manual labour.

It was soon after the beginning of the new year that Chris was entrusted
with a printed antiphonary that had its borders and initials left white;
and he carried the great loose sheets with a great deal of pride to the
little carrel or wooden stall assigned to him in the northern cloister.

It was a tiny room, scarcely six feet square, lighted by the window into
the cloister-garth, and was almost entirely filled by the chair, the
sloping desk against the wall, and the table where the pigments and
brushes lay ready to the hand. The door opened on to the cloister itself
where the professed monks were at liberty to walk, and on the opposite
side stood the broad aumbries that held the library of the house; and it
was from the books here that Chris was allowed to draw ideas for his
designs. It was a great step in that life of minute details when now for
the first time he was permitted to follow his own views, instead of
merely filling in with colour outlines already