"You know his profession?"--Diana said, not knowing much better either how to take this question. "Yes, yes. I know his profession; I ought to, for I wanted him to be a lawyer. But don't you know, my dear, there are all sorts of clergymen? There are some make sermons as other men make bricks; and some more like the way children blow soap-bubbles; all they care for is, how big they are, and how high they will fly, and how long they will last. And I have heard people preach," the old lady went on, "who seemed most like as if they were laying out a Chinese puzzle, and you had to look sharp to see where the pieces fitted. And some, again, preach sermons as if they were a magistrate reading the Riot Act, only they don't want the people to disperse by any means. What is Basil's way?" "He has more ways than all these," said Diana, who could not help smiling. "These among 'em?" "I think not." "Go on, then, and tell me. What's he like in the pulpit?" Diana considered how she should humour the old lady's wish. "Sometimes he is like a shepherd leading his flock to pasture," she began. "Sometimes he is like a lifeboat going out to pick up drowning people. Sometimes it is rather a surgeon in a hospital, going round to find out what is the matter with people and make them well. Sometimes he is just the messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all his business is to deliver his message and get people to hear it." Mrs. Sutphen looked at Diana over the table, and evidently pricked up her ears; but Diana spoke quite simply, rather slowly; she was thinking how Basil had often seemed to her in his ministry, in and out of the pulpit. "My dear," said the old lady, "if your husband is like that, do you know you are married to quite a remarkable man?" "I thought as much a great while ago." "And what sort of a pastor's wife do you make? You are a very handsome woman to be a minister's wife." "Am I? Why should not a handsome woman be the wife of a minister?" "Why, she should, if she can make up her mind to it. Well, my dear, if you will have no more breakfast, perhaps you will like to go and rest. Do you enjoy bathing?" Diana did not take the bearing of the question. "I go into the water every morning," the old lady explained. "You had better do the same. It will strengthen you." "Into the water! You mean the salt water?" "Of course I mean the salt water. There isn't any fresh water to go into, and no good if there was." "I never tried salt water. I never saw salt water before." "Do you good," said the old lady. "Well, go and sleep, my dear. Basil says you want rest."