Lady Sophia turned to him and said:
"Then I shall be informal and beg you to lunch with us, if you don't mind our being alone. We lunch early, at one, as my husband is tired after his morning's work and eats virtually nothing at breakfast."
"I shall be delighted," said Malling. "It's very kind of you."
"We always walk home," said the rector.
He sighed. It was obvious that he was in low spirits after the failure of the morning, but he tried to conceal the fact, and his wife tactfully helped him. Malling praised the music warmly, and remarked on the huge congregation.
"I scarcely thought I should find a seat," he added.
"It is always full to the doors in the morning," said Lady Sophia, with a cheerfulness that was slightly forced.
She glanced at her husband, and suddenly added, not without a decided touch of feminine spite:
"Unless Mr. Chichester, the senior curate, is preaching."
"My dear Sophy!" exclaimed Mr. Harding.