"I trow they be. They say the Dean loves them like the children of
his old age, and declares that they shall be made in love with holy
lore by gentleness rather than severity."

"Is it likely that this same Alworthy could obtain me entrance
there?"

"Alack, sir, I fear me thou art too old. I see none but little lads
among them. Didst thou come to London with that intent?"

"Nay, for I only wist to-day that there was such a school. I came
with I scarce know what purpose, save to see Stephen safely
bestowed, and then to find some way of learning myself. Moreover, a
change seems to have come on me, as though I had hitherto been
walking in a dream."

Tibble nodded, and Ambrose, sitting there in the dark, was moved to
pour forth all his heart, the experience of many an ardent soul in
those spirit searching days. Growing up happily under the care of
the simple monks of Beaulieu he had never looked beyond their
somewhat mechanical routine, accepted everything implicitly, and
gone on acquiring knowledge with the receptive spirit but dormant
thought of studious boyhood as yet unawakened, thinking that the
studious clerical life to which every one destined him would only be
a continuation of the same, as indeed it had been to his master,
Father Simon. Not that Ambrose expressed this, beyond saying, "They
are good and holy men, and I thought all were like them, and fear
that was all!"