se him; for with the Warrenders in such
deep mourning, and those other horrible people on the other side, and
things in general getting worse and worse every day----"

"He is not acquainted with the parish, and he does not know that things
are getting worse and worse every day. It is a pity about the mourning;
but do you think it is so deep that a game of croquet would be impossible?
Croquet is not a riotous game."

"Herbert!" cried Mrs. Wilberforce. She added in a tone of indignant
disapproval, "If you feel equal to suggesting such a thing to girls
whose father has not yet been six weeks in his grave, I don't."

The rector was reduced to silence. He was aware that the laws of decorum
are in most cases better understood by ladies than by men, and also that
the girls at the Warren would sooner die than do anything that was not
according to the proper rule that regulated the conduct of persons in
their present circumstances. He withdrew, accordingly, to his study,
with rather an uneasy feeling about the visit of Dick Cavendish. The
rector's study was on the opposite side of the hall, at the end of a
short passage, which was a special providence; for nothing that Mrs.
Wilberforce could do would prevent him from smoking, and by this means
the hall, at least, and the chief sitting-room were kept free of any
suggestions of smoke. He said of himself that he was not such a great
smoker, but there was no doubt that it was one of the crosses which his
wife said everybody had to bear. That was her cross, her husband's pipe,
and she tried to put up with it like a Christian. This is one of the cases
in which there is very often a conflict of evidence without anything
that could be called perjury on either side: for Mrs. Wilberforce
declared to her confidants (she would not have acknowledged it to the
public for worlds) that her husband smoked morning, noon, and night;
whereas he, when the question was put to him casually, asserted that
he was not at all a great smoker, though he liked a pipe when he was
working, and a cigar after dinner. "When you are working! Then what a
diligent life you must lead, for I think you are always working,"
the wife would remark. "Most of my time, certainly, dear," said the
triumphant husband. There are never very serious jars in a family where
smoke takes so important a place. Mr. Wilberforce retired now, and took
a pipe to help him to consider. The study was a commodious room, with a
line of chairs