"I was not aware of the fact," said Sir Ralph.

"A most heterodox remark," said brother Michael: "know you not,
that in all nice matters you should take the implication for absolute,
and, without looking into the FACT WHETHER, seek only the reason why?
But the fact is so, on the word of a friar; which what layman will venture
to gainsay who prefers a down bed to a gridiron?"

"The fact being so," said the knight, "I am still at a loss for the reason;
nor would I undertake to opine in a matter of that magnitude: since, in all
that appertains to the good things either of this world or the next,
my reverend spiritual guides are kind enough to take the trouble of thinking
off my hands."

"Spoken," said brother Michael, "with a sound Catholic conscience.
My little brother here is most profound in the matter of trout.
He has marked, learned, and inwardly digested the subject, twice a
week at least for five-and-thirty years. I yield to him in this.
My strong points are venison and canary."

"The good qualities of a trout," said the little friar,
"are firmness and redness: the redness, indeed, being the visible
sign of all other virtues."

"Whence," said brother Michael, "we choose our abbot by his nose:

The rose on the nose doth all virtues disclose:
For the outward grace shows
That the inward overflows,