Then again, Brother Fabian was a coarse, illiterate man, utterly unfit to be the guide and instructor of youth.

Sir Oliver had not dined at the prior's table and spent hours in his company for nothing, and he knew many of the monks tolerably well.

Brother Fabian was the one he liked the least; indeed he had a strong dislike and distrust of the man, and was well aware that the ecclesiastical habit was the only thing about him that savoured of sanctity or the monastic life.

He would not have allowed the contaminating presence of such a man near his sons, even had he been indued with the needful learning for the task of instructor.

As it was, he knew that the monk could barely spell through his breviary, and it was plain that the prior must have another reason for wishing to induct him into the house.
Nor was the reason difficult to divine.