Lord Bishop of
Carisbury, who will take his _ambigue_ and bait his steeds at this
castle."

Miss Joliffe stared; she saw a bottle and an empty tumbler on the table,
and smelt a strong smell of whisky; and the mirth faded from Mr
Sharnall's face as he read her thoughts.

"No, wrong," he said--"wrong this once; I am as sober as a judge, but
excited. A Bishop is coming to lunch with me. _You_ are excited when
Lord Blandamer takes tea with you--a mere trashy temporal peer; am I not
to be excited when a real spiritual lord pays me a visit? Hear, O
woman! The Bishop of Carisbury has written to ask, not me to lunch with
him, but him to lunch with me. You will have a Bishop lunching at
Bellevue Lodge."

"Oh, Mr Sharnall! pray, sir, speak plainly. I am so old and stupid, I
can never tell whether you are joking or in earnest."

So he put off his exaltation, and told her the actual facts.

"I am sure I don't know, sir, what you will give him for lunch," Miss
Joliffe said. She was always careful to put in a proper number of
"sirs," for, though she was proud of her descent, and considered that so
far as birth went she need not fear comparison with other Cullerne
dames, she thought it a Christian duty to accept fully the position of
landlady to which circumstances had led her. "I am sure I don't know
what you will give him for lunch; it is always so difficult to arrange
meals for the clergy. If one provides _too_ much of the good things of
this world, it seems as if one was not considering sufficiently their
sacred calling; it seems like Martha, too cumbered with much serving,
too careful and troubled, to gain all the spiritual advantage that must
come from clergymen's society. But, of course, even the most
spiritually-minded must nourish their _bodies_, or they would not be
able to do so much good. But when less provision has been made, I have
sometimes seen clergymen eat it all up, and become quite wearied, poor
things! for want of food. It was so, I remember, when Mrs Sharp
invited the parishioners to meet the deputation after the Church
Missionary Meeting. All the patties were eaten before the deputation
came, and he was so tired, poor man! with his long speech that when he
found there was nothing to eat he got quite annoyed. It was only for a
moment, of course, but I heard him say to someone, whose name I forget,
that he had much better have trusted to a ham-sandwich in the station
refreshment-room.

"And i