His lips were beginning to tremble, and he half turned and gripped the mantel-shelf with his right hand.

Ralph noticed with a kind of contemptuous pity how the heavy girded folds of the frock seemed to contain nothing, and that the wrist from which the sleeve had fallen back was slender as a reed.

Ralph felt himself so infinitely his brother's superior that he could afford to be generous and kindly.
"Dear Chris," he said, smiling, "you look starved and miserable.

Shall I tell Morris to bring you something?
I thought you monks fared better than that." In a moment Chris was on his knees on the rushes; his hands gripped his brother's arms, and his wild eyes were staring up with a fanatical fire of entreaty in them.

His words broke out like a torrent.
"Ralph," he said, "dear brother! for Jesu's sake, come away! I have heard everything.