This is what he had feared and almost expected;--that the cloister would make a fanatic of this fantastic brother of his.
He glanced round at the door that he had left open, but the house was silent.

Then he turned again.
"Sit down, Chris," he said, with a strong effort at self-command, and he pulled his sleeve away, went back and shut the door, and then came forward past where his brother was standing, to the chair that stood with its back to the window.
"You must not be fond and wild," he said decidedly.

"Sit down, Chris." The monk came past him to the other side of the hearth, and faced him again, but did not sit down.

He remained standing by the fire-place, looking down at Ralph, who was in his chair with crossed legs.
"What is this folly ?" said Ralph again.
Chris stared down at him a moment in silence.
"Why, why--" he began, and ceased.
Ralph felt himself the master of the situation, and determined to be paternal.
"My dear lad," he said, "you have dreamed yourself mad at Lewes.

When did you come to London ?" "Yesterday," said Chris, still with that strange stare.
"Why, then--" began Ralph.
"Yes--you think I was too late, but I saw it," said Chris; "I was there in the evening and saw it all again." All his nervous tension seemed relaxed by the warm common-sense atmosphere of this trim little room, and his brother's composure.