corrugated iron had
sufficed. Now the first stage of a noble design in ruddy
sandstone was all but completed.

The new Bishop who had been called to sit in its Cape-oak throne
was complacent of its charms. Chancel and Lady-chapel were
provided; transepts and tower might be expected in due course of
time. The Bishop was long and lean and dark-haired, very closely
shaven. He came from Oxford, yet he was wise enough to obtrude
that fact but seldom on South Africa. He watched and listened
intently and said strangely little; nevertheless, when he did
speak, he seemed to have no lack of things to say. His speech to
the Cathedral Building Committee after a three months' silence
was not without its interest. He spoke well of both design and
execution.

He turned to the shyer subject of the raising of the funds. How
had they attained to such wealth as their secretary announced?
Mainly by means of three fancy fairs and a cafe chantant. Alas!
that it should be so. Yet he did not propose to hold inquests.
Let the dead bury their dead! Let them, however, set their hearts
as the nether millstone against the adding of transept or tower
save only by alms made to God. He went on to ask with whose
memory the Lady-chapel was to be associated. Was it not the fact
that they had associated the chapel of Christ's Mother with the
memory of a visionary statesman? There seemed to be want of
consideration for the great dead shown in their popular decision,
inasmuch as he had not seen his way to accept her Son. Was it not
something of a felony to have stolen the dead man's name--a
felony that had assisted their funds very lavishly? But, likely
enough, the Committee had had some noble thought in mind when
they gave to the dead such reckless honor. The last touches were
now being given to the nave. He wished to make a personal request
of his own. He understood that colored persons and natives were
not to be encouraged to frequent this mother of churches. Their
status within was, to say the least, precarious and hard to
reconcile with due respect for the second chapter of Saint James.
He asked to put in at his own expense five windows after the
likeness of leper windows in England windows that colored persons
and natives might use freely and without reproach. By this means
someone at least of them from without the walls might be made
free of the vision of the services within.

The irony of the speech escaped its hearers for the most part.
Afte