And Ralph sucked in his lip and bit it sharply at the consciousness of his own folly.
"I hope your brother will be very happy," went on the other after a moment, "and I am sure he will be, if his call is from God, as I think likely.

I was with the Carthusians myself, you know, for four years, and sometimes I think I should have stayed there.

It is a blessed life.
I do not envy many folks, but I do those.

To live in the daily companionship of our blessed Lord and of his saints as those do, and to know His secrets--_secreta Domini_--even the secrets of His Passion and its ineffable joys of pain--that is a very fortunate lot, Mr.Torridon.
I sometimes think that as it was with Christ's natural body so it is with His mystical body: there be some members, His hands and feet and side, through which the nails are thrust, though indeed there is not one whole spot in His body--_inglorious erit inter viros aspectus ejus--nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum_--but those parts of His body that are especially pained are at once more honourable and more happy than those that are not.

And the monks are those happy members." He was speaking very solemnly, his voice a little tremulous, and his kindly eyes were cast down, and Ralph watched him sidelong with a little awe and pity mingled.