'We must come to some arrangement about the bathroom, he said. 'Grimes very rarely has a bath. I have one before breakfast.
'So do I, said Paul defiantly.
'Then I suppose I shall have to find some other time, said Mr Prendergast, and he gave a deep sigh as he returned his attention to his pipes. 'After ten years, too, he added, 'but everything's like that. I might have known you'd want the bath. It was so easy when there was only Grimes and that other young man. He was never down in time for breakfast. Oh dear! oh dear! I can see that things are going to be very difficult.
'But surely we could both have one?
'No, no, that's out of the question. It's all part of the same thing. Everything has been like this since I left the ministry.
Paul made no answer, and Mr Prendergast went on breathing and rubbing.
'I expect you wonder how I came to be here?
'No, no, said Paul soothingly. 'I think it's very natural.
'It's not natural at all; it's most unnatural. If things had happened a little differently I should be a rector with my own little house and bathroom. I might even have been a rural dean, only' ‑ and Mr Prendergast dropped his voice to a whisper ‑ 'only I had Doubts.
'I don't know why I'm telling you all this, nobody else knows. I somehow feel you'll understand.