the bishop never grieves without reason, or else
in such a large diocese he would always be doing it.'
Charlotte was silent.
'He begged me to tell you that he will pray for you.'
There was another pause. Then Charlotte said, 'Thank you.'
What else was she to say? What does one say in such a case? Our
governesses teach us how pleasant and amiable an adornment is
politeness, but not one of mine ever told me what I was to say when
confronted by an announcement that I was to be included in somebody's
prayers. If Charlotte, anxious to be polite, had said, 'Oh, please don't
let him trouble,' the bishop's wife would have been shocked. If she had
said what she felt, and wholly declined to be prayed for at all by
strange bishops, Mrs. Harvey-Browne would have been horrified. It is a
nice question; and it preoccupied me for the rest of the time we sat
there, and we sat there a very long time; for although Charlotte was
manifestly sorely tried by Mrs. Harvey-Browne I had great difficulty in
getting her away. Each time I suggested going back to our lodgings to
bed she made some excuse for staying where she was. Everybody else
seemed to have gone to bed, and even Ambrose, who had been bicycling all
day, had begun visibly to droop before I could persuade her to come
home. Slowly she walked along the silent sands, slowly she went into the
house, still more slowly into her bedroom; and then, just as Gertrud had
blessed me and blown out my candle in one breath, in she came with a
light, and remarking that she did not feel sleepy sat down on the foot
of my bed and began to talk.
She had on a white dressing-gown, and her hair fell loose about her
face, and she was very pale.
'I can't talk; I am much too sleepy,' I said, 'and you look dreadfully
tired.'
'My soul is tired--tired out utterly by that woman. I wanted to ask you
if you won't come away with me to-morrow.'
'I can't go away till I have explored these heavenly forests.'
'I can't stay here if I am to spend my time with that woman.'
'That woman? Oh Charlotte, don't call her such awful names. Try and
imagine her sensations if she heard you.'
'Why, I shouldn't care.'
'Oh hush,' I whispered, 'the windows are open--she might be just outside
on the beach. It gives me shivers only to think of it. Don't say it
again. Don't be such an audacious German. Think of Oxford--think of
venerable things like cathedral closes and bishops' palaces. Think of
the dignity and de
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