that was impossible, as the Reverend and Honorable Smallwood Stafford,
Lord Beamys's son, who had a cure of souls in the cathedral city, was
well known to burn no end of candles, and with him the bishop was on the
best of terms. Indeed the bishop often stayed at Coplesey (pronounced
"Copsey") Hall, Lord Beamys's place in the west.

Lucian had mentioned the name of De Carti with intention, and had perhaps
exaggerated a little Mrs. Dixon's respectful manner. He knew such
incidents cheered his father, who could never look at these subjects from
a proper point of view, and, as people said, sometimes made the strangest
remarks for a clergyman. This irreverent way of treating serious things
was one of the great bonds between father and son, but it tended to
increase their isolation. People said they would often have liked to
asked Mr. Taylor to garden-parties, and tea-parties, and other cheap
entertainments, if only he had not been such an _extreme_ man and so
_queer_. Indeed, a year before, Mr. Taylor had gone to a garden-party at
the Castle, Caermaen, and had made such fun of the bishop's recent
address on missions to the Portuguese, that the Gervases and Dixons and
all who heard him were quite shocked and annoyed. And, as Mrs. Meyrick of
Lanyravon observed, his black coat was perfectly _green_ with age; so on
the whole the Gervases did not like to invite Mr. Taylor again. As for
the son, nobody cared to have him; Mrs. Dixon, as she said to her
husband, really asked him out of charity.

"I am afraid he seldom gets a real meal at home," she remarked, "so I
thought he would enjoy a good wholesome tea for once in a way. But he is
such an _unsatisfactory_ boy, he would only have one slice of that nice
plain cake, and I couldn't get him to take more than two plums. They were
really quite ripe too, and boys are usually so fond of fruit."