Then the bishop, with his calm hand over the shaking one, put the receiver to his ear.
“Yes, this is he,” he answered composedly. And in a moment: “Oh—yes. I’m glad. Surely, my boy. Come at once.”
Under the big oak in the garden, by the stream which was the garden’s boundary, were placed wicker chairs and a table. One went through the honeysuckle arch to get to them. There were tall lilies along the stream and blue ranks of larkspur towered beyond; the hollyhocks were showing spots of color in the high rows against the hedge; stone steps led to the little river, and a boat rocked, tied; the water tinkled; it was as pleasant a place as might be where two old friends should sit of a warm afternoon and smoke and talk. They went there, the bishop and his guest.
Doctor Fletcher, straining after composure, bent over a blossom.
“A verbena, isn’t it?”
“Jim, you’re probably the original of the man in the story who knew only two botanical names of flowers—aurora borealis and delirium tremens. That’s phlox.”
The hearty contempt helped to steady the stricken man. No one of his patients had ever seen the great physician unnerved, but to-day the match shook which he held to his pipe; for a moment he could not light it. The bishop laughed and his mouth twisted whimsically.
“Nonsense, Jim. You mustn’t be upset. You and I know better. It is a crisis, of course, but there is nothing final about it—you know all I can say. Old age and death are just a sort of measles in the cosmic childhood of us eternal people. We’ll sit in gardens and talk together thousands of times again—better gardens than this, maybe, though I can’t imagine it.” He looked about him wistfully. “To my mind it’s like the hill of Zion here—‘a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth’—‘the whole earth’—that’s me.” He went on: “I’m not bothered. That is—well, if I could manage two things the way I want I’d be satisfied to leave the job and move on.”
“What things?” the doctor demanded eagerly, stretching his fingers across the table between them.
“You can’t manage them, old man.”