Page:Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories (1915).djvu/23

 The bishop took the volume containing the "Christian Evidences" and looked at it.

"I read Paley some years ago," he said, "and I don't think I want to read him again."

"Quite right," said Minnie. "I'll get you a different sort of book. There was an excellent one here this morning called, 'On the Edge of a Precipice.' My sister-in-law must have carried it off. I'll fetch it."

"Please don't. If she's reading it "

"She isn't. Or if she is she ought not to be. It's not at all a proper book."

"Perhaps," said the bishop, "I'd better stick to Paley, after all. The novel may be exciting."

"It is, very."

"Then it might disturb my meditation, and I was up early this morning."

"Don't say another word," said Minnie. "You're perfectly right. Dinner is at eight. If I find that you haven't heard the dressing-gong, I'll come and knock you up myself."

She left the room, but came back again a few minutes later. The bishop, with a volume of Paley on his knee, was stretched in a deep chair.

"Excuse me," said Minnie. "I left a box of cigarettes here. Why didn't you take one?"

"Thank you," said the bishop, "but I don't smoke."

Minnie took a cigarette from the box and lit it.

"Ronald thinks," she said, "that you'll be