"
The others all laughed at the seriousness with which Roger had answered
the girl's jesting remark.
"It is a matter that I have never thought of before, Roger," Oswald
said; "but assuredly it would, as you say, be fitting and right that,
when I take a mistress, you should do so also--like master like man,
you know. Since your thoughts have been turned that way, I will see the
abbot, next time I go to Alnwick, and lay the case before him. Of a
truth you have made a most excellent man-at-arms, and 'tis equally
certain that you were an exceedingly bad monk. It would doubtless be
well that you should obtain a complete absolution from your vows; for
although I am sure that the good abbot regards you, now, as altogether
beyond his control, and would take no steps against you were he to hear
of your marriage, it might not be so in the case of his successor. He
is an old man, and the next abbot may be of a very different character;
and, looking through the books of the convent, he might say, 'What has
become of Brother Roger? I see no record of his death.'
"Then, pushing matters further, he might discover your backsliding, and
might summon you before him, and there is no saying what pains and
penalties he might inflict upon you.
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