"You know I don't agree, Yorick?"
"What about?"
"About 'poor Challis.'" These words were said in inverted commas. "I told you, don't you remember, that I had heard all about it from the other side—from Charlotte Eldridge."
"Yes, but you were biassed against him, because of his deceased wife's sister marriage. You know you were!"
"Well!—wasn't I right?" But there is an amused twinkle in the Rector's eye, which is understood. "Oh no, Yorick, no!—it's quite a different thing...."
"Before and after an Act of Parliament, is that it?"
But Adeline has run her ship on the sands, and must back off. "It's impossible to compare the two cases," she says. "Do you know, if you are to be at St. Vulgate's by seven-thirty, you'll want a cab. You can't carry what you're pleased to call your little valise and get there by then. Do take a cab, Yorick!"
"Fifty-five minutes does it," says Yorick. "And I've got fifty-seven. I've a great mind to spend the odd two reading you a little homily about consistency...."
"Go away. Good-bye." A cordial shake of the hand is all that forms permit, and it seems such a shame!