‘Dr Tempest, what is your objection?’ said Mrs Proudie, rising from her chair, and coming also to the table, so that from thence she might confront her opponent; and as she stood opposite to Dr Tempest she also put both her hands upon the table.

‘My dear, perhaps you will leave us for a few moments,’ said the bishop.  Poor bishop!  Poor weak bishop!  As the words came from his mouth he knew that they would be spoken in vain, and that if so, it would have been better for him to have left them unspoken.

‘Why should I be dismissed from your room without a reason?’ said Mrs Proudie.  ’Cannot Dr Tempest understand that a wife may share her husband’s counsels—­as she must share his troubles?  If he cannot, I pity him very much as to his own household.’

‘Dr Tempest,’ said the bishop, ’Mrs Proudie takes the greatest possible interest in everything concerning the diocese.’

‘I am sure, my lord,’ said the doctor, ’that you will see how unseemly it would be that I should interfere in any way between you and Mrs Proudie.  I certainly will not do so.  I can only say again that if you will communicate with me your wishes in writing, I will attend to them—­if it be possible.’

‘You mean to be stubborn,’ said Mrs Proudie, whose prudence was beginning to give way under the great provocation to which her temper was being subjected.

’Yes, madam; if it is to be called stubbornness, I must be stubborn.  My lord, Mrs Proudie spoke to me on this subject in the breakfast-room after you had left it, and I then ventured to explain to her that in accordance with such light as I have on the matter, I could not discuss it in her presence.  I greatly grieve that I failed to make myself understood by her—­as, otherwise, this unpleasantness might have been spared.’

’I understood you very well, Dr Tempest, and I think you to be a most unreasonable man.  Indeed, I might use a much harsher word.’

‘You may use any word you please, Mrs Proudie,’ said the doctor.

‘My dear, I really think you had better leave us for a few minutes,’ said the bishop.

‘No, my lord—­no,’ said Mrs Proudie, turning round upon her husband.  ’Not so.  It would be most unbecoming that I should be turned out of a room in this palace by an uncourteous word from a parish clergyman.  It would be unseemly.  If Dr Tempest forgets his duty, I will not forget mine.  There are other clergymen in the diocese besides Dr Tempest who can undertake the very easy task of this commission.  As for his having been appointed rural dean I don’t know how many years ago, it is matter of no consequence whatever.  In such a preliminary inquiry any three clergymen will suffice.  It need not be done by the rural dean at all.’

‘My dear!’

’I will not be turned out of this room by Dr Tempest;—­and that is enough.’

‘My lord,’ said the doctor, ’you had better write to me as I proposed to you just now.’