Page:Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915).djvu/21

 Mrs. Mendel, who was deeply impressed by the austerity of the bishop's appearance, grasped the opportunity of Minnie's absence. She slipped into the smoking-room, removed "On the Edge of a Precipice," and placed the five volumes of Paley's works in a row on the table. She got back to the drawing-room in time to pour out tea for the bishop. He only drank one cup and took nothing to eat. This distressed Mrs. Mendel. She was accustomed to enjoying a solid meal at five o'clock and she regarded the bishop's abstinence as a kind of asceticism. Minnie talked fluently about golf, a subject which seemed only moderately interesting to the bishop. He said very little, but gazed at Minnie with an expression of some bewilderment. When it became quite clear that he did not mean to drink any more tea, she put down her cup and saucer and stood up.

"The bishop," she said, "would like to see his sanctum at once."

"My sanctum!" he said. "Have I one?"

"Yes," said Minnie, "you have. I arranged it for you myself. It used to be Ronald's smoking-room, but"

"I mustn't turn Mr. Mendel out of his room," said the bishop. "It's bad enough to come here as an uninvited guest. I don't want to put you all to unnecessary inconvenience."

"It's a pleasure to us," said Minnie. "We know that a bishop can't get on without a sanctum. My