that he had tramped
far, and was tired.

The Bishop took up the conversation.

"You are thoroughly British, Mr. Griffin, or you would not have said
'Your Lordship.' The bishops in England are all addressed in that way,
are they not?"

"Of course, and here also. Did I not hear Father Murray--"

"Oh, Father Murray is quite different. He is a convert, and rather
inclined to be punctilious. Then, too, he is from England. In America
the best we get as a rule is just plain 'Bishop.' One of your own kind
of Bishops--an Episcopalian--I knew him well and a charming man he
was--told me that in England he was 'My Lorded' and 'Your Lordshiped'
everywhere, until he had gotten quite used to the dignity of it. But
when he stepped on the dock at New York, one of his lay intimates took
all the pomposity out of him by a sound slap on the back and the
greeting, 'Hello, Bish, home again?'"

"It was very American, that," said Mark. "We wouldn't understand it."

"But _we_ do. I wouldn't want anyone to go quite that far, of course.
I have nerves. But I confess I rather like the possibility of it--so
long as it stays a possibility only. We Yankees are a friendly lot,
but not at all irreverent. A bishop has to be 'right' on the manhood
side as well as on the side of his office. That's the way we look at
it."

A wicked thought went through Mark's head. He let it slide out in
words before he weighed the words or the thought. An instant after, he
could have bitten his tongue with chagrin.

"But don't you take the manhood into account in dealing with your
clergy?"

To Mark's surprise the Bishop was not offended by the plain reference
to the unpleasant scene in the rectory at Sihasset.

"Thank you; thank you kindly, Mr. Griffin, for giving me such an
excellent opening. I really wanted you to say something like that. If
you hadn't, I should certainly have been nonplussed about finding the
opening for what I desire to say to you. You are now referring to my
seemingly unchristian treatment of Monsignore Murray? Eh, what?" It
seemed to please the Bishop to lay emphasis on the English "Eh, what?"
He said it with a comic intonation that relieved Mark's chagrin.

"Your Lordship is a diplomat. I was wrong to ask the question. The
affair is simply none of my business."

"But it is, Mr. Griffin. I would not want you, a stranger--perhaps not
even a Catholic--to keep in your mind the idea that a Catholic bishop
is cold and