The bishop [to his wife] Coax him to join us, my love. [Mrs Bridgenorth goes into the study].  Soames is my chaplain, Mr Collins.  The great difficulty about Bishops in the Church of England to-day is that the affairs of the diocese make it necessary that a Bishop should be before everything a man of business, capable of sticking to his desk for sixteen hours a day.  But the result of having Bishops of this sort is that the spiritual interests of the Church, and its influence on the souls and imaginations of the people, very soon begins to go rapidly to the devil—­

Edith [shocked] Papa!

The bishop.  I am speaking technically, not in Boxer’s manner.  Indeed the Bishops themselves went so far in that direction that they gained a reputation for being spiritually the stupidest men in the country and commercially the sharpest.  I found a way out of this difficulty.  Soames was my solicitor.  I found that Soames, though a very capable man of business, had a romantic secret his-tory.  His father was an eminent Nonconformist divine who habitually spoke of the Church of England as The Scarlet Woman.  Soames became secretly converted to Anglicanism at the age of fifteen.  He longed to take holy orders, but didnt dare to, because his father had a weak heart and habitually threatened to drop dead if anybody hurt his feelings.  You may have noticed that people with weak hearts are the tyrants of English family life.  So poor Soames had to become a solicitor.  When his father died—­ by a curious stroke of poetic justice he died of scarlet fever, and was found to have had a perfectly sound heart—­I ordained Soames and made him my chaplain.  He is now quite happy.  He is a celibate; fasts strictly on Fridays and throughout Lent; wears a cassock and biretta; and has more legal business to do than ever he had in his old office in Ely Place.  And he sets me free for the spiritual and scholarly pursuits proper to a Bishop.

Mrs Bridgenorth [coming back from the study with a knitting basket] Here he is. [She resumes her seat, and knits].  Soames comes in in cassock and biretta.  He salutes the company by blessing them with two fingers.

Hotchkiss.  Take my place, Mr Soames. [He gives up his chair to him, and retires to the oak chest, on which he seats himself].

The bishop.  No longer Mr Soames, Sinjon.  Father Anthony.

Soames [taking his seat] I was christened Oliver Cromwell Soames.  My father had no right to do it.  I have taken the name of Anthony.  When you become parents, young gentlemen, be very careful not to label a helpless child with views which it may come to hold in abhorrence.

The bishop.  Has Alice explained to you the nature of the document we are drafting?

Soames.  She has indeed.

Lesbia.  That sounds as if you disapproved.

Soames.  It is not for me to approve or disapprove.  I do the work that comes to my hand from my ecclesiastical superior.