Her look said, “There! what d’you think of that?”

“Modified!” said Dion, rather doubtfully.

“Never between meals—­never.”

“At any rate that’s a step in the right direction.”

“Isn’t it?  I took it with him.”

“The modified pledge?”

“Yes,” she said, with great seriousness.

“But you never——!  To help him, of course.”

“Yes.”

“And has it made a difference to the nose?”

“I think it’s made a considerable difference.  But I want your opinion.”

“I’ll give it you for what it’s worth.  But who’s going to see Mr. Thrush?”

“The Dean.

“The Dean!  Why on earth?”

“Almost directly there’s going to be a vacancy among the vergers, and the Dean has promised me faithfully that if Mr. Thrush seems suitable he shall have the post.”

“Mr. Thrush a verger!  Mr. Thrush carry a poker before a bishop!”

“Not a poker, only a white wand.  I’ve been making him practise here in the garden, and he does it quite admirably already.”

She spoke now with almost defiant emphasis.  Dion loved her for the defiance and for its deliciously absurd reason.

“The Dean is away, but he’s coming back to-morrow, so I begin to feel rather anxious.  Of course, he’ll see at once that Mr. Thrush is an educated man.  I’m not afraid about that.  It’s only—­well, the little failing.  It would mean so much for Mr. Thrush to get the post.  He’ll be provided for for life.  I’ve set my heart on it.”

Annie came in.

“Oh, Annie, is it Mr. Thrush?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Please ask him to come in.”

With a very casual air, as of one doing a thing for no particular reason and almost without thought, she lowered the wick of the lamp which illuminated the room.

“We don’t want it to flare,” she said, as she came away from it.  “Oh, Mr. Thrush, here’s my husband back again!”

With a certain unostentatious dignity Mr. Thrush stepped into the room.  He was most respectably dressed in a neat black suit, the coat of which looked rather like either a frock coat which was in course of diminishing gradually into what tailors call “a morning coat,” or a morning coat which was in course of expanding gently into a frock coat; a speckless collar with points appeared above a pair of dark worsted gloves, and a hat which resembled a square bowler half-way on the road to top hatdom.

Dion felt touched by his appearance and his gait, which seemed to hint at those rehearsals in the garden, and especially touched by the fact that he had bought a new hat.

“Welcome home, sir!” he said at once to Dion.  “I’m sure the country is proud of you.”

He paid the compliment with so much sincerity that Dion did not feel embarrassed by it.

“Do sit down, Mr. Thrush,” said Rosamund, after hands had been cordially shaken.  “No, not there!”—­as he was about to sit full in the lamplight—­“This chair will be more comfortable.  Now I’ll leave you to have a little talk with my husband.”