Page:Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915).djvu/13



EALLY, Ronald," said Ethel Mendel, "your mother is very unreasonable. Just now, too, when we are having such a pleasant time."

She spoke to her husband, who was arranging a salmon cast in the smoking-room. The post had just arrived and she held an open letter in her hand. He glanced at it apprehensively. His mother was an old lady who made unreasonable demands of her children and usually carried through any scheme in which she was interested without regard for the feelings of other people.

"What is she at now?" he asked.

"She is sending a bishop here," said Mrs. Mendel. "And he is to stay a week."

"Good Heavens! We can't possibly have a bishop here. It—it wouldn't be decent."

The Mendels had taken a house in Connemara for the month of August, a house with some good fishing attached to it. Gilbert Hutchinson, a keen angler quite uninterested in bishops, was with them. Minnie, Ronald's youngest sister, had been admitted to the party as a companion for Mrs. Mendel.