rains
in and three out every Sabbath. Could nothing be done to induce the
company to withdraw them?"

"Not being a director, I really can't say. But if you can withdraw the
passengers, the company, I dare say, will withdraw the trains," said the
archdeacon. "It's merely a question of dividends."

"But surely, Dr. Grantly," said the lady, "surely we should look at it
differently. Don't you think so, Mr. Harding?"

Mr. Harding thought that all porters and stokers, guards and pointsmen
ought to have an opportunity of going to church, and he hoped that they
all had.

"But surely, surely!" continued Mrs. Proudie, "surely that is not
enough."

Come what might, Dr. Grantly was not to be forced into a dissertation on
a point of doctrine with Mrs. Proudie, nor yet with Mr. Slope; so he
turned his back upon the sofa, and hoped that Dr. Proudie had found the
palace repairs had been such as to meet his wishes.

At once Mr. Slope sidled over to the bishop's chair, and began a
catalogue of grievances concerning the stables and the out-houses. Mrs.
Proudie, while she lent her assistance in reciting the palatial
short-comings in the matter of gas, hot-water pipes, and the locks on
the doors of servants' bedrooms, did not give up her hold of Mr.
Harding. Over and over again she had thrown out her "Surely, surely!" at
Mr. Harding's devoted head, and ill had that gentleman been able to
parry the attack.

He had never before found himself subjected to such a nuisance, or been
so hard pressed in his life. Mrs. Proudie interrogated him, and then
lectured. "Neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man
servant, nor thy maid servant," said she, impressively, and more than
once, as though Mr. Harding had forgotten the words. She shook her
fingers at him as she quoted the law, as though menacing him with
punishment.

Mr. Harding felt that he ought to rebuke the lady for presuming so to
talk to a gentleman and a clergyman many years her senior; but he
recoiled from the idea of scolding the bishop's wife, in the bishop's
presence, on his first visit to the palace; moreover, to tell the truth,
he was somewhat afraid of her.

The archdeacon was now ready to depart, and he and the precentor, after
bowing low to the lady and shaking hands with my lord, made their escape
from Mr. Slope as best they could. It was not till they were well out of
the palace and on the gravel walk of the close that the archdeacon
allowed the wrath in