'Ah, you are here, St. Cleeve,' said the Bishop, hardly replying to

Swithin's good morning. 'I fear I am a little late. Well, my request to

you to meet me may have seemed somewhat unusual, seeing that we were

strangers till a few hours ago.' 'I don't mind that, if your lordship wishes to see me.' 'I thought it best to see you regarding your confirmation yesterday; and

my reason for taking a more active step with you than I should otherwise

have done is that I have some interest in you through having known your

father when we were undergraduates. His rooms were on the same staircase

with mine at All Angels, and we were friendly till time and affairs

separated us even more completely than usually happens. However, about

your presenting yourself for confirmation.' (The Bishop's voice grew

stern.) 'If I had known yesterday morning what I knew twelve hours

later, I wouldn't have confirmed you at all.' 'Indeed, my lord!' 'Yes, I say it, and I mean it. I visited your observatory last night.' 'You did, my lord.' 'In inspecting it I noticed something which I may truly describe as extraordinary. I have had young men present themselves to me who turned

out to be notoriously unfit, either from giddiness, from being profane or

intemperate, or from some bad quality or other. But I never remember a

case which equalled the cool culpability of this. While infringing the

first principles of social decorum you might at least have respected the

ordinance sufficiently to have stayed away from it altogether. Now I

have sent for you here to see if a last entreaty and a direct appeal to

your sense of manly uprightness will have any effect in inducing you to

change your course of life.' The voice of Swithin in his next remark showed how tremendously this

attack of the Bishop had told upon his feelings. Louis, of course, did

not know the reason why the words should have affected him precisely as

they did; to any one in the secret the double embarrassment arising from

misapprehended ethics and inability to set matters right, because his

word of secrecy to another was inviolable, would have accounted for the

young man's emotion sufficiently well.

'I am very sorry your lordship should have seen anything objectionable,'

said Swithin. 'May I ask what it was?' 'You know what it was. Something in your chamber, which forced me to the above conclusions. I disguised my feelings of sorrow at the time for

obvious reasons, but I never in my whole life was so shocked!' 'At what, my lord?' 'At what I saw.' 'Pardon me, Bishop Helmsdale, but you said just now that we are

strangers; so what you saw in my cabin concerns me only.' 'There I contradict you. Twenty-four hours ago that remark would have

been plausible enough; but by presenting yourself for confirmation at my

hands you have invited my investigation into your principles.' Swithin sighed. 'I admit it,' he said.




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