“No, I won’t. But, mamma, a Bishop of Westminster will be higher than a Bishop of Barchester; won’t he? I shall so like to be able to snub those Miss Proudies.” It will therefore be seen that there were matters on which even Griselda Grantly could be animated. Like the rest of her family she was devoted to the Church.
Late on that afternoon the archdeacon returned home to dine in Mount Street, having spent the whole of the day between the Treasury chambers, a meeting of Convocation, and his club. And when he did get home it was soon manifest to his wife that he was not laden with good news.
“It is almost incredible,” he said, standing with his back to the drawing-room fire.
“What is incredible?” said his wife, sharing her husband’s anxiety to the full.
“If I had not learned it as fact, I would not have believed it, even of Lord Brock,” said the archdeacon.
“Learned what?” said the anxious wife.
“After all, they are going to oppose the bill.”
“Impossible!” said Mrs. Grantly.
“But they are.”
“The bill for the two new bishops, archdeacon? oppose their own bill!”