We moved into the crowd. There I saw a lot of those foreign ministers. One of them bowed to me. I gave him a dignified bend of the head. This messing-up of divinity and parties goes against my ideas of propriety.
A Vermont minister would be turned out of his pulpit if he ventured to show himself in a worldly gathering like that.
"What are you so dignified about, Cousin Phœmie?" says Dempster. "Didn't you see the minister bowing to us?"
"Yes," says I, "but I don't mean to encourage backsliding and worldly amusements in Christian leaders. They have no business here."
"But they are not particularly Christians," says he.
"I should think not," says I; "and the Churches that sent them here ought to know how they are going on."
"But the Churches did not send that gentleman. It was the Queen."
"Exactly," said I; "and isn't she the head of the Church. No, no, cousin, you can't make excuses for them."
"But their mission is political," says he.
"Of course," says I. Church and State—I understood."