Mark gave a full account of himself until the present and wound up by saying:
"I don't think I have any sentimental reasons for wanting to enter a monastery. I like working among soldiers and sailors. I am ready to put down £200 and I hope to be of use. I wish to be a priest, and if you find or I find that when the time comes for me to be ordained I shall make a better secular priest, at any rate, I shall have had the advantage of a life of discipline and you, I promise, will have had a novice who will have regarded himself as such, but yet will have learnt somehow to have justified your confidence."
The Superior looked down at his desk pondering. Presently he opened a letter and threw a quick suspicious glance at Mark.
"Why didn't you tell me that you had an introduction from Sir Charles Horner?"
"I didn't know that I had," Mark answered in some astonishment. "I only met him here a few days ago for the first time. He invited me to lunch, and he was very pleasant; but I never asked him to write to you, nor did he suggest doing so."
"Have you any vices?" Father Burrowes asked abruptly.
"I don't think—what do you mean exactly?" Mark inquired.
"Drink?"
"No, certainly not."
"Women?"