“But you said something else.”
“I added a brief prayer for pity.”
Lady Alicia sighed and repeated a little less firmly. “It wouldn’t be right of me, Mr Beveridge.”
“But what would be wrong?”
This was said with even more fervour.
“My conscience—we are very particular, you know.”
“Who are ‘we’?”
“Papa is very strict High Church.”
An idea seemed to strike Mr Beveridge, for he ruminated in silence.
“I asked Mr Candles—our curate, you know,” Lady Alicia continued, with a heroic effort to make her position clear.