mode of talking.

And then on Saturday afternoon they all went over to Barchester.
Harold Smith during the last forty-eight hours had become crammed
to overflowing with Sarawak, Labuan, New Guinea, and the Salomon
Islands. As is the case with all men labouring under temporary
specialities, he for the time had faith in nothing else, and was
not content that any one near him should have any other faith. They
called him Viscount Papua and Baron Borneo; and his wife, who headed
the joke against him, insisted on having her title. Miss Dunstable
swore that she would wed none but a South Sea islander; and to Mark
was offered the income and duties of Bishop of Spices. Nor did the
Proudie family set themselves against these little sarcastic quips
with any overwhelming severity. It is sweet to unbend oneself at the
proper opportunity, and this was the proper opportunity for Mrs.
Proudie's unbending. No mortal can be seriously wise at all hours;
and in these happy hours did that usually wise mortal, the bishop,
lay aside for awhile his serious wisdom.

"We think of dining at five to-morrow, my Lady Papua," said the
facetious bishop; "will that suit his lordship and the affairs of
State? he! he! he!" And the good prelate laughed at the fun. How
pleasantly young men and women of fifty or thereabouts can joke and
flirt and poke their fun about, laughing and holding their sides,
dealing in little innuendoes and rejoicing in nicknames, when they
have no Mentors of twenty-five or thirty near them to keep them in
order! The vicar of Framley might perhaps have been regarded as such
a Mentor, were it not for that capability of adapting himself to the
company immediately around him on which he so much piqued himself.
He therefore also talked to my Lady Papua, and was jocose about
the Baron,--not altogether to the satisfaction of Mr. Harold Smith
himself. For Mr. Harold Smith was in earnest, and did not quite
relish these jocundities. He had an idea that he could in about three
months talk the British world into civilizing New Guinea, and that
the world of Barsetshire would be made to go with him by one night's
efforts. He did not understand why others should be less serious, and
was inclined to resent somewhat stiffly the amenities of our friend
Mark.

"We must not keep the Baron waiting," said Mark, as they were
preparing to start for Barchester.

"I don't know what you mean by the Baron, sir," said Harold Smith.
"But perhaps the jo