greet Mrs. Selldon when she came downstairs.



MY FIFTH STAGE



Also it is wise not to believe everything you hear, not immediately
to carry to the ears of others what you have either heard or
believed.
THOMAS A KEMPIS.


Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not passed
on to the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. Selldon's mind all day,
and came to her aid that night when she was at her wits' end for
something to talk about.

Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was of a
phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily aroused, her
mind was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was unutterably dull.
There were times when she was painfully conscious of this, and would
have given much for the ceaseless flow of words which fell from the
lips of her friend Mrs. Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my
arrival chanced to be one of these occasions, for there was a
dinner-party at the Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known
author who was spending a few days in the neighbourhood.

"I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the table,