THE LAPSE OF THE BISHOP

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16625, 6 January 1922, Page 4

THE LAPSE OF THE BISHOP

OUR SERIAL.

By GUY THORNE (Author of " When It was Dark,” eto.) CHA PTER ITT. THE BISHOP, THE ADMIRAL, AXD DOROTHY. Dear me, dear me. dammit,” said the Admiral Mr Gulling, of Ranger, Gulling and Ward©, sat at the other side of the tablo and smiled professionally at his client. J>lr Gulling was a drv- old gentleman who, in middle ago, had added side whiskers to his selfesteem. lie was solicitor to many of the country families and all the principal ecclesiastics of Psaltnster. . . . You didirt know you were so rich, Admiral?” “ No. really—what’s it work out at, Mr Gulling?” “ Not n penny less, not, a penny less,” said tho solicitor with unction, “than live thousand pounds a year. If that property at Upper Lodmore develops as I could wish, it will mean another seven hundred.” The genial old sailor and the parch-ment-coloured lawyer looked over the table, well pleased with each other. Ihe one had carefully nursed Lady Alice Gauntly’s fortune, until it had reached the stage of producing the large income which had just beou mentioned. It was with the pleasure of a connoisseur that Mr Gulling presented bis accounts to the Admiral. “I’ll be bound you never thought that wo had done so well by you,” said Mr Gulling with a chuckle. “ Never thought anything about it. rny dear fellow, but five thousand n. year. Add that to my own fifteen hundred. and . . The Admiral said no more. The sense of his wealth—now that he understood it—overwhelmed him. Then practical common sense came to the rescue. Tt was well after twelve o’clock. There was something eminently kindly and human beaming from the lawyer’s eye. Tho Admiral thought lie discerned a possible friend beneath the legal veneer. “ I think. Mr Gulling. said the Admiral, “ that the sun is over the yarda rm ? ’ * “ I have heard that phrase before.” said Mr Gulling. “In ordinary practice I should not .respond. But on such an occasion as this I don’t say but that a biscuit and a. glass of wine might not . . Before he had finished, the Admiral was pulling tho bell. “ The ’64 Oockburn,” he said to the butler, an ancient creature who had belonged to the entourage of Lady Alice, and who knew the bins. ‘‘Capital fellow, old Mason,” the lawyer said, rubbing his hands. “He knows the cellar of ‘ Priors ’ as no one else does. It’s oelebrated, Admiral. I suppose you know that?” “ I have got a sort of idea, though I have not explored at all. Canon Ogee is going through the cellars with mo one day.” “There’s jio one in Psalmster to whom I would yield on the point of vine except Canon Ogee. The late Bishop was a Judge. He had a nice . palate, and knew rJtfJut w ine. But Ogee is much more than an amateur.” The Admiral was thoroughly happy. All was well with the world. A thought came to him. “By the way, Gulling, do you ever play a game of chess?” The lawyer smiled. “ I think I may say,” ho answered, (i I really think I may say without any conceit, that I am a fair player!” “ I can see I am going to like Psalmnter,” the Admiral answered as old Mason shuffled in with a cob-web bottle in its basket cradle, and a gleam of light in his watery eyes. “ ’Asn’t been touched this last ten years.” said Mason ; “ spiling for drinking, the wine ’as been during ’er Ladyship’s long illness. No, sir, leave it to me, if you please.” The cork, sound and true, was lovingly withdrawn. Th© Admiral and the lawyer, well pleased with each other, reverently sipped the perfect wine. “Rich!” said Air Gulling; “ now if T could peTsuado you. Admiral, some day to favour me with, vour company at my house half a mile out of Psalmster —I have ft win there—the fellow to this—l think you would, I do think you would . . .” “ I shall be with you. Gulling, whenever you will be kind enough to invite me. Hello!” The door of the library was flung open and "Dorothy burst in. “ Herbert never w r ent home last night.” who cried. Both th© gentlemen put down their glasses, and then Dorothy saw that her father was not alone. She was introduced to Air Gulling in due form, and that connoisseur of good things looked at her with sometiling of the appreciation that he had bestowed upon tlio Admiral’s WINK. Tt was a real though modified enthusiasm. At th© moment Air Gulling was not a lawyer, but was human. He forgot that this pretty and impetuous maiden was part heiress to “Priors” and five thousand a year. He gave her the welcome ho would hav© expended to a glass of good Burgundy—not, of course, port. “What, wliat?” said the Admiral. “ Herbert not gone home, how’s this, bow is this?”-—rudely disturbed from the enjoyment of his wine, tho Admiral had a dim notion that some disciplinary action, was demanded.

“ No, ho was wdth tho Bishop until quite late last night, and so he stayed at the Mitro. I met Herbert in. the High Street, I never thought that lie •would bo in town at all, and h© took me to so© tho Bishop. Such a dear !” “ You nr© more fortunate than most of us, Mias Feveril,” said Air Gulling, gathering up his papers with an. oldfashioned bow. “Few of us in Psalinster have done more than catch a fleeting vision of our Bishop as yet, and I understand that his doctors have ordered him away for a further period before he will be fit to take up his duties.” “ So he told me just now.” Dorothy answered, and then, when the solicitor had left th© library she sat down by her father. “ You can’t think what a relief it is, my only father,” she said, “ to have found th© Bishop such a dear. By the way, I have asked him to tea. this afternoon Sir Beauchamp started. il My dear/’ ho said in some alarm, “ wasn’t that just a little ...” “Oh no, T don’t think so. Why should it ? We got on like a house on fire, though I -was dreadfully conscious of being totted up for inspectionPoor man, he looks very ill. Herbert, who has gone back to Goroombe, was tremendously bucked up. He was in a horrible funk last night before dinner.” “ Why should h© be in a funk, h© has met plenty of Bishops before I should think? And he has often said that he has known this one for yeans.” “ Well, we didn’t say anything about it to you, but Dr Manners is dreadfully against his clergy marrying.”

(To be Continued A