hardly hoped for.

"Moreover, Albert, you cannot but be proud of the name your father and
those before him have won by their gallant deeds, but if you went into the
Church it would no longer appear in the roll of the knights of England. It
would be ill indeed that a line of knights, who have so well played their
part on every battle-field since your ancestor came over with the
Conqueror, should become extinct."

"I had never thought of that before, Edgar," Albert said, after a long
pause. "You see, for years I have looked forward to entering the Church as
a matter settled for me by nature. I had no enthusiasm for it, but it
seemed there was no other place for me. Of late, since I have gained
health and strength, I have seen that possibly it might be otherwise. At
first I struggled against the idea and deemed it the suggestion of the
Evil One, but it has grown in spite of me, although I never allowed myself
fully to entertain it, until I saw the joy with which my father perceived
that I was not altogether the weakling that he had deemed me.

"Since then I have thought of it incessantly, but until now have been
unable to come to any decision. On the one hand I should please my father,
and at the same time satisfy the desire that has of late sprung up for a
more stirring life than that of the Church, and should be able to remain
your comrade. On the other hand, I have always regarded the Church as my
vocation, and did not like to go back from it, and moreover, although
stronger than of old, I thought that I might never attain such health and
strength as might render me a worthy knight, and feared that when tried I
should be found wanting. Thus I have wavered, and knew not which way my
inclinations drew me most strongly, but I never thought of what you have
just said, that if I were to enter the Church our line would come to an