her brother Robert, who was the young man with
the beer, seemed put out at this message. Indeed, the latter went so far
as to say:

"Good! Have some beer, Eugene?"

"But who is coming?" repeated Miss Kate. "Really, Eugene, you might pay
a little attention to me."

"Can't, my dear Kate--not in public. It's not good form, is it, Lady
Claudia?"

"Eugene," said Mrs. Lane, in a tone as nearly severe as she ever arrived
at, "if you wish your guests to have either dinner or beds, you will at
once tell me who and how many they are."

"My dear mother, they are in number five, composed as follows: First,
the Bishop of Bellminster."

"A most interesting man," observed Miss Chambers.

"I am glad to hear it, Aunt Jane," responded Eugene. "The Bishop is
accompanied by his wife. That makes two; and then old Merton, who was at
the Colonial Office you know, and Morewood the painter make four."

"Sir George Merton is a Radical, isn't he?" asked Lady Claudia severely.

"He tries to be," said Eugene. "Shall I order a carriage to take you to
the station? I think, you know, you can stand it, with Haddington's
help."

Mr. Spencer Haddington, the other young man in flannels, was a very
rising member of the Conservative party, of which Lady Claudia conceived
herself to be a pillar. Identity of political views, in Mr. Haddington's
opinion, might well pave the way to a closer union, and this hope
accounted for his having consented to pair with Eugene, who sat on the
other side, and spend the last week in idleness at Millstead.

"Well," said Mr. Robert Territon, "it sounds slow, old man."

"Candid family, the Territons," remarked Eugene to the copper-beech.

"Who's the fifth? you've only told us four," said Kate, who always
stuck to the point.

"The fifth is--" Eugene paused a moment, as though preparing a
sensation; "the fifth is--Father Stafford."

Now it was a remarkable thing that all the ladies looked up quickly and
re-echoed the name of the last guest in accents of awe, whereas the men
seemed unaffected.

"Why, where did you pick _him_ up?" asked Lady Claudia.

"Pick him up! I've known Charley Stafford since we were both that high.
We were at Harrow and at Oxford together. Rickmansworth knows him, Bob.
You didn't come till he'd left."

"Why is the gentleman called 'Father'?" said Bob.

"Because he is a priest," Miss Chambers answered. "And really, Mr.
Territon, you're very ignorant. Everybody knows Father Stafford. Yo