"Quite so," said Cecil. "I suppose you remember his article in the _Daily Leader_, in which he alluded to you as a 'consecrated fossil'?"
"H'm!" said the Bishop. "Really, the accommodation at the inn is very good, and perhaps, with so many guests, it would be asking too much of your aunt."
"What does all this mean?" asked Spotts of Banborough when a convenient opportunity offered.
The Bishop's son shrugged his shoulders, replying:
IN WHICH PEACE IS PROPOSED AND WAR DECLARED.
Marchmont stood on the lawn before the palace, on the morning after his arrival, critically inspecting that structure; his feet stretched wide apart, his hands in his pockets, and his hat on the back of his head.
Cecil, emerging from breakfast, sighted his enemy and made haste to join him.
"Jolly old rookery you've got," remarked the reporter.
"Yes," said Banborough. "It was a monastery originally. They turned it into a bishop's palace about the reign of Henry VIII."
"I know that style," said the American. "Nice rambling ark, two stories high, and no two rooms on the same level. Architect built right out into the country till he got tired, and then turned round and came back. Obliged to have a valet to show you to your room whether you're sober or not."
"I didn't know," said Cecil drily, "that you possessed an extensive acquaintance in ecclesiastical circles in this country."
"Oh, yes," said Marchmont, "I served as valet for six months to a bishop while I was gathering materials for my articles on 'English Sees Seen from the Inside.'"
"Was it a financial success?" queried Banborough.
"No," admitted the reporter regretfully, "it sold the paper splendidly, but was stopped at the second article at the request of the American ambassador."
"If you had done so you would probably have slept in the rooms we give to our American guests in the new part of the house."
"How old is that?" queried the journalist.
"About eight hundred years," replied Cecil, "and the walls are four feet thick."
"I know," said the reporter, "It's appalling. That sort of thing always upsets me. It seems so out of keeping with the _Daily Leader_."
"Look here, Marchmont, why have you come to Blanford?" demanded Banborough, abruptly changing the conversation.