He was not, however, to be spared the question of the clergy upon this visit, for the Graftons were coming over to consult him about one for Abington, and he had been given due warning that it would be so. A private patron does not always consult his Bishop over his appointments, and it was supposed that his Lordship would not be averse from giving his advice in this instance.
Grafton came over to tea, with Caroline and Beatrix. There were to be guests at the Abbey that evening, or the consultation would have taken place over the dinner table.
Tea was in the garden, which spread in wide cedar-decked lawns round the great white house. The Bishop had a lovely garden of his own, in which he could taste the sweets of retirement. But there was a remoteness about this spreading country garden, with the fields and woods all around it, which he could not get in the high-walled pleasaunce of his palace. He sighed with contentment as he sank down into a large cane chair by the tea table, and said:
"You have a lovely place here, my dear. I sometimes wish that I had set out to be a country gentleman, and dealt with beasts instead of with men."
"You have to deal with both as a landowner," said Ella, "and the men are sometimes more difficult than the beasts."
"The men are beasts sometimes," said the Bishop's wife, who prided herself upon her plain speaking.
"Now, my dear," he said, "we are going to forget all the disputes that beset us as long as we are here, and believe that none of them ever come to disturb the peace of such a place as Surley. Isn't your friend Grafton coming over to see me, Ella? Ah! but here he is with two of those nice girls. What pretty creatures they are! It's a pleasure to look at them."
The Graftons were coming across the wide lawn. They were indeed pleasant-looking objects of the countryside, Grafton in his smart-looking blue flannel suit, the girls in their pretty summer frocks. Presently they were all chatting and laughing over the tea table, and the Bishop was liking them more than ever for the friendly way in which they treated him, and the absence from their demeanour of that paralysing awe which so often irked him on similar occasions.
Tea was over, and Grafton had just introduced the subject about which he had come, when a tall clerical figure was seen advancing across the lawn.