________________________________________________
_ Breakfast on Sunday morning was an hour later than on week-days,
and Priscilla, who usually made no public appearance before
luncheon, honoured it by her presence. Dressed in black silk,
with a ruby cross as well as her customary string of pearls round
her neck, she presided. An enormous Sunday paper concealed all
but the extreme pinnacle of her coiffure from the outer world.
"I see Surrey has won," she said, with her mouth full, "by four
wickets. The sun is in Leo: that would account for it!"
"Splendid game, cricket," remarked Mr. Barbecue-Smith heartily to
no one in particular; "so thoroughly English."
Jenny, who was sitting next to him, woke up suddenly with a
start. "What?" she said. "What?"
"So English," repeated Mr. Barbecue-Smith.
Jenny looked at him, surprised. "English? Of course I am."
He was beginning to explain, when Mrs. Wimbush vailed her Sunday
paper, and appeared, a square, mauve-powdered face in the midst
of orange splendours. "I see there's a new series of articles on
the next world just beginning," she said to Mr. Barbecue-Smith.
"This one's called 'Summer Land and Gehenna.'"
"Summer Land," echoed Mr. Barbecue-Smith, closing his eyes.
"Summer Land. A beautiful name. Beautiful--beautiful."
Mary had taken the seat next to Denis's. After a night of
careful consideration she had decided on Denis. He might have
less talent than Gombauld, he might be a little lacking in
seriousness, but somehow he was safer.
"Are you writing much poetry here in the country?" she asked,
with a bright gravity.
"None," said Denis curtly. "I haven't brought my typewriter."
"But do you mean to say you can't write without a typewriter?"
Denis shook his head. He hated talking at breakfast, and,
besides, he wanted to hear what Mr. Scogan was saying at the
other end of the table.
"...My scheme for dealing with the Church," Mr. Scogan was
saying, "is beautifully simple. At the present time the Anglican
clergy wear their collars the wrong way round. I would compel
them to wear, not only their collars, but all their clothes,
turned back to frantic--coat, waistcoat, trousers, boots--so that
every clergyman should present to the world a smooth facade,
unbroken by stud, button, or lace. The enforcement of such a
livery would act as a wholesome deterrent to those intending to
enter the Church. At the same time it would enormously enhance,
what Archbishop Laud so rightly insisted on, the 'beauty of
holiness' in the few incorrigibles who could not be deterred."
"In hell, it seems," said Priscilla, reading in her Sunday paper,
"the children amuse themselves by flaying lambs alive."
"Ah, but, dear lady, that's only a symbol," exclaimed Mr.
Barbecue-Smith, "a material symbol of a h-piritual truth. Lambs
signify..."
"Then there are military uniforms," Mr. Scogan went on. "When
scarlet and pipe-clay were abandoned for khaki, there were some
who trembled for the future of war. But then, finding how
elegant the new tunic was, how closely it clipped the waist, how
voluptuously, with the lateral bustles of the pockets, it
exaggerated the hips; when they realized the brilliant
potentialities of breeches and top-boots, they were reassured.
Abolish these military elegances, standardise a uniform of sack-
cloth and mackintosh, you will very soon find that..."
"Is anyone coming to church with me this morning?" asked Henry
Wimbush. No one responded. He baited his bare invitation. "I
read the lessons, you know. And there's Mr. Bodiham. His
sermons are sometimes worth hearing."
"Thank you, thank you," said Mr. Barbecue-Smith. "I for one
prefer to worship in the infinite church of Nature. How does our
Shakespeare put it? 'Sermons in books, stones in the running
brooks.'" He waved his arm in a fine gesture towards the window,
and even as he did so he became vaguely, but none the less
insistently, none the less uncomfortably aware that something had
gone wrong with the quotation. Something--what could it be?
Sermons? Stones? Books? _
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