Mr. Williams laughed about it. "I don't know about young Denis," he said. "That would be rather a tall order, as things go now-a-days. There's one fellow, though, that I hope won't get it. But perhaps I'd better not say who he is in this company." He laughed again.
"Oh, we know who you mean," said Caroline. "We hope he won't get it either. But why shouldn't Denis?"
"I suppose because all the rest of us would kick up such a fuss," said Mr. Williams, laughing most heartily. "I shouldn't on my own account, but there are lots of older men who have worked hard all their lives who ought to be considered before a young one just beginning. There's nothing to do there either. A young fellow ought to have something to do."
"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Ella. "Rhoda and Ethel find a great deal to do, and Denis is never idle. I can't take your view of it at all, and I hope my uncle won't."
Mr. Williams laughed. "We were wondering how much Mrs. Carruthers might have to do with it as we rode over, weren't we, dear?" he asked of his wife, and laughed again.
"We hope she is going to have a great deal to do with it," said Beatrix. "We are heart and soul for Denis."
Richard Mansergh, who was sitting next to her, frowned slightly. "Brill—our fellow—was saying that with that big house and good income there ought to be a sort of community there," he said.
"That's just what Father Brill would say," said Mrs. Williams. "Everybody likes Father Brill; but preserve us from having our nice Rectories and Vicarages filled with people of his sort. I don't mean his sort personally, but celibates stalking about in cassocks, and no women in the parsonages for poor people to come to. It wouldn't do at all."
"I'm sure it wouldn't," said Worthing. "You can't change and muddle up English country life like that. What were all the parsons' houses built for? You've got them in every village in the land, so that there should be an educated man able to live like a gentleman; and now people like Brill want to put it all back again. It won't do."
"You speak with considerable heat, James," said Grafton.