‘We will think about it, my love, when I have a little more time on my hands,’ answered Mr. Penwyn.
He never said an absolute ‘No’ to his wife; but a request which had to be thought about by him was rarely granted.
Madge gave an impatient sigh. These people at the lodge exercised her patience severely.
‘Waiting till you have leisure seems absurd, Churchill,’ she said. ‘With your parliamentary work, and all that you have to see to here, there can be no such thing as spare time. Why not send these people away at once? They make the place look horribly untidy.’
‘I’ll remonstrate with them,’ replied Churchill.
‘And then they are such queer people,’ continued Madge. ‘That girl Elspeth is as ignorant as a South Sea Islander, and I dare say the grandmother is just as bad. They never go to church, setting such a shocking example to the villagers.’
‘My love, there are many respectable people who never go to church. I rarely went myself in my bachelor days. I used to reserve Sunday morning for my arrears of correspondence.’
‘Oh, Churchill!’ cried Madge, with a shocked look.
‘My dearest love, you know I do not set up for exalted virtue.’
‘Churchill!’ she exclaimed, tenderly, but still with that shocked look. She loved him so much better than herself that she would have liked heaven to be a certainty for him even at the cost of a cycle in purgatory for her.