I kept this last reason to myself, but I stated the other three fully to Sir Samuel. He seemed dissatisfied.
“Everybody’s going to church,” he complained. “I can’t get Lord Moyne. I can’t get Babberly. I can’t get Malcolmson, and it’s really most important that I should see some one. Going to church is all very well—”
“As a leading Nonconformist,” I said.
“Free Churchman,” said Sir Samuel.
“I beg your pardon, Free Churchman. You ought not to object to people going to church. I’ve always understood that the Free Churchmen are honourably distinguished from other Christians by their respect for the practice of Sunday worship.”
“Of course, I don’t object to people going to church. I should be there myself if it were not that—”
He hesitated. I thought he might be searching for an appropriate text of Scripture so I helped him.
“Your ass,” I said, “has fallen into a pit, and you want—”
This was evidently not exactly the text he wanted. He seemed astonished when I quoted it.
“Ass!” he said. “What ass?”