elp you--in a domestic way."

"Don't quite follow," said Mr. Maydig, pouring out a glass of miraculous
old Burgundy.

Mr. Fotheringay helped himself to a second Welsh rarebit out of vacancy,
and took a mouthful. "I was thinking," he said, "I might be able (_chum,
chum_) to work (_chum, chum_) a miracle with Mrs. Minchin
(_chum, chum_)--make her a better woman."

Mr. Maydig put down the glass and looked doubtful.

"She's----She strongly objects to interference, you know, Mr.
Fotheringay. And--as a matter of fact--it's well past eleven and she's
probably in bed and asleep. Do you think, on the whole----"

Mr. Fotheringay considered these objections. "I don't see that it
shouldn't be done in her sleep."

For a time Mr. Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mr.
Fotheringay issued his orders, and a little less at their ease, perhaps,
the two gentlemen proceeded with their repast. Mr. Maydig was enlarging on
the changes he might expect in his housekeeper next day, with an optimism,
that seemed even to Mr. Fotheringay's supper senses a little forced and
hectic, when a series of confused noises from upstairs began. Their eyes
exchanged interrogations, and Mr. Maydig left the room hastily. Mr.
Fotheringay heard him calling up to his housekeeper and then his footsteps
going softly up to her.

In a minute or so the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant.
"Wonderful!" he said, "and touching! Most touching!"

He began pacing the hearthrug. "A repentance--a most touching repentance--
through the crack of the door. Poor woman! A most wonderful change! She
had got up. She must have got up at once. She had got up out of her sleep
to smash a private bottle of brandy in her box. And to confess it too!...
But this gives us--it opens--a most amazing vista of possibilities. If we
can work this miraculous change in _her_..."

"The thing's unlimited seemingly," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And about Mr.
Winch----"

"Altogether unlimited." And from the hearthrug Mr. Maydig, waving the
Winch difficulty aside, unfolded a series of wonderful proposals--
proposals he invented as he went along.

Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials of this
story. Suffice it that they were designed in a spirit of infinite
benevolence, the sort of benevolence that used to be called post-prandial.
Suffice it, too, that the problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it
necessary to describe how far that series got to