"Oh, I'm afraid I've said something shocking!" she exclaimed in a delightfully naïve manner, "and I did mean to be so good and decorous. I'm sure I'll need a lot of teaching."
"I shall be delighted to undertake the task," he replied gallantly. "Suppose we begin by going to evensong. Would you like to do so?"
"Rather," she returned; "but I'm afraid," looking at her travelling-costume, "that I'm hardly dressed for the part--I mean the occasion."
"Dear me!" said the Bishop, scrutinizing her keenly, "it seems to be a very pretty gown."
"Oh, that's all right," she said. "Then we'll go at once."
"So we shall," he replied, "and you shall sit in the stalls."
"How jolly!" she exclaimed. "I almost always have to sit in the balcony."
"Really?" said his Lordship. "You don't say so. But from what Mr. Spotts says, I should judge that the architecture of American churches was novel." And they walked across the lawn to the cathedral.
A few moments later, Miss Matilda, having dismissed her guests to their rooms, found herself alone with her nephew.
"Well," she said, turning on him sharply, "perhaps at last you'll condescend to tell me who these _friends_ of yours are?"
"They're a party of ladies and gentlemen with whom I've been travelling in America," Cecil replied. "And as we'd agreed to join forces for the rest of the summer, I'd no option but to invite them here as my guests. The gentlemen I've already introduced to you--"
"Oh, the gentlemen!" snapped his aunt. "I've no concern about them. It's the women I--"
"The ladies, then. Your father, in what he is pleased to call his wisdom, has seen fit to allow you to introduce these persons into his house. I'm sure I hope he won't regret it! But I must insist on knowing something about the people whom I'm entertaining."
"As I've told you already," he replied very quietly, "they're ladies whom I've met in America. I might also add that they've good manners and are uniformly courteous."
Miss Matilda tilted her nose till its tip pointed straight at the spire of the cathedral, and, without any reply, swept past him into the house.
Dinner, that night, in spite of his aunt's efforts to the contrary, was an unqualified success. The Bishop hailed with joy any interruption in the monotony of his daily life, and made himself most agreeable, while his guests seconded him to the best of their ability.