“Don’t we go to Rockstone?” asked Paulina. “I am sure there is a really satisfactory church there.”
“St. Kenelm’s, do you mean? That is not so near as St. Andrew’s Church, but that is very satisfactory, and I go to one or other of them on week-days. It is too late to come back on these spring Sundays.”
“I should not like to live among so many churches,” said Mrs. Best, “and so far from them all!”
“You love your old parish church, like a faithful old churchwoman,” said Magdalen. “Well, you see, I am faithful enough to go to my parish in the morning, but I think we may be discursive afterwards. There is a Sunday school in which I was waiting to offer help till our party was made up.”
Magdalen had looked twice for a responding smile, first from Agatha, and then from Paulina, but none was awakened. The girls clustered together in the bedroom, and the word “Goody” passed between them.
“Tempered by respect for my Lord and Sir Jasper,” added Agatha.
“And avoiding St. Kenelm’s because it is the real correct church,” said Paulina.
“Oh, yes!” cried Vera. “Mr. Hubert Delrio went to see it in case Eccles and Beamster should have an order. We must go there.”
“Of course,” said Paulina, with a sympathetic nod.
“But,” said Agatha, “there will be an embargo on all acquaintance except the grandees at Clipstone.”