ce of Machiavellian subtlety for the halving of their
temporalities.

The Bishops had just opened their holy mouths to protest when the
approach of the Jubilee festivities shut them up. The Church of Jingalo
was on a tight and established footing, and had to conform to the
commercial, conventional, and constitutional requirements of its day;
for you cannot, if you are by law established, play fast and loose with
those institutions on which a nation bases its prosperity. So even when
the Government proposed the creation of demi-mondain bishops, and the
setting up of what amounted to a second establishment in the upper
chamber of its spiritual spouse, the outward proprieties were still
observed, and the sanctities of national interests respected. It is true
that the Bishop of Olde, lifting from his bed a burden of ninety years,
climbed up into the central pulpit of his diocese to preach a sermon
which was ecstatically applauded by all Churchmen, and committed
thereafter to the keeping of a carefully selected few. It won for him
the affectionate nickname of "Never-say-die" and put his followers into
a hole from which they never afterwards emerged. And so the Bishops
entered into the loyal silence of the Jubilee truce with a flush of
conscious rectitude upon their faces; while behind closed doors the
Prime Minister and the Primate Archbishop of Ebury had met to talk
business, to drive conditional bargains, and to kill time till such
other time as seemed good to them.

They met at the town-residence of the one Bishop of the Establishment
who had lent a favorable ear to the Prime Minister's proposals.
Boycotted by his brother Bishops this solitary pelican in piety was
still on terms of official acquaintance with his titular head. Placing
his well-stored nest at the disposal of the two combatants, he retired
for a discreet week-end into the wilderness; and the Prime Minister and
the Archbishop, after announcing in the press that they also had gone
elsewhere, came together by appointment for the indication of ultimatums
and the fixing of dates when ju-jitsu was to commence.

When the Prime Minister arrived his Grace the Primate, attended by his
chaplain, was already in the house. An ecclesiastical butler carried
word to the chaplain, and the chaplain carried it to the oratory.

The Archbishop finished his prayer; it served the double purpose of
strengthening him in his resolve to present a firm front that for the
time being