understood I attend only out of consideration for my wife's uncle,
then--"

He was interrupted by the entrance of the person in question.

Many times during breakfast Denis looked thoughtfully at his
great-uncle, and at last inquired--

"Do you preach very long sermons, Uncle Augustus?"

"They are not generally considered so," replied the Canon with some
dignity.

"Denis, I have often told you not to ask questions," said Lady Atherley.

"When I am grown up," remarked Harold, "I will be an atheist."

"Do you know what an atheist is?" inquired his father.

"Yes, it is people who never go to church."

"But they go to lecture-rooms, which you would find worse."

"But they don't have sermons."

"Don't they? Hours long, especially when they bury each other."

"Oh!" said Harold, evidently taken aback, and somewhat reconciled to the
church.