ught to
have got it, in some legacy, or else we got it and they thought they
ought to have it, I forget which; anyhow, I know they behaved
disgracefully. Now here was one of them turning up in the odour of
sanctity, so to speak, and claiming the traditional hospitality of the
East."

"It was rather trying, but you could have left your husband to do most of
the entertaining."

"My husband was fifty miles up-country, talking sense, or what he
imagined to be sense, to a village community that fancied one of their
leading men was a were-tiger."

"A what tiger?"

"A were-tiger; you've heard of were-wolves, haven't you, a mixture of
wolf and human being and demon? Well, in those parts they have
were-tigers, or think they have, and I must say that in this case, so far
as sworn and uncontested evidence went, they had every ground for
thinking so. However, as we gave up witchcraft prosecutions about three
hundred years ago, we don't like to have other people keeping on our
discarded practices; it doesn't seem respectful to our mental and moral
position."

"I hope you weren't unkind to the Bishop," said Annabel.

"Well, of course he was my guest, so I had to be outwardly polite to him,
but he was tactless enough to rake up the incidents of the old quarrel,
and to try to make out that there was something to be said for the way
his side of the family had behaved; even if there was, which I don't for
a moment admit, my house was not the place in which to say it. I didn't
argue the matter, but I gave my cook a holiday to go and visit his aged
parents some ninety miles away. The emergency cook was not a specialist
in curries, in fact, I don't think cooking in any shape or form could
have been one of his strong points. I believe he originally came to us
in the guise of a gardener, but as we never pretended to have anything
that could be considered a garden he was utilised as assistant goat-herd,
in which capacity, I understand, he gave every satisfaction. When the
Bishop heard that I had sent away the cook on a special and unnecessary
holiday he saw the inwardness of the manoeuvre, and from that moment we
were scarcely on speaking terms. If you have ever had a Bishop with whom
you were not on speaking terms staying in your house, you will appreciate
the situation."

Annabel confessed that her life-story had never included such a
disturbing experience.

"Then," continued Matilda, "to make matters more complicated, the