Sally looked up and the expression in her eyes changed.
"Have I never told you?"
"No."
"He consecrated too much wine one Easter Sunday where he was taking a locum tenens—and afterwards, when he had to drink it—it went to his head."
She told it so seriously that Janet was driven to choke the rush of laughter rising within her.
"Why did he have to drink it?" she asked.
"They have to. Consecrated wine mustn't be kept."
"But why not? Does it go bad?"
"Janet! No—but, don't you see?—they do keep it in the Roman Catholic Church—on the altar—that's why the little red lamp is always burning in front. That's why the people bow when they first come into the church. And don't you see they're afraid in the Anglican Church, that if the Bread and Wine were kept, people might venerate it as the real Presence, which of course it isn't."
"Isn't it?"