"I do not think my brother would ever discuss a subject with any one whom he expected to agree with. It would be hardly worth while," my mother answered, and the Warden looked at her quickly. "Surely the benefit arising from a discussion does not depend wholly, or I may say chiefly, from disagreement upon the subject discussed. A Cabinet Council, for instance, may conceivably arrive at a satisfactory and at the same time an unanimous conclusion." "My brother would not call that a discussion," my mother answered shortly, and the Warden said "Ah," which meant, I believe, that however the Bishop defined the word discussion, it was useless to discuss anything with ladies. "You will have some tea?" my mother said, as soon as we had reached the verandah. "You will excuse me, my absence from the hotel at which I have taken a room for to-night, has already been too prolonged. You drink tea in France, madam?" "We brought our tea with us." "Admirable foresight, but it remains for you to see the water boiling," and then as if he knew that he had hurt my mother's feelings and wished to make some recompense, he continued, "The Bishop, madam, is a man for whom I have a most sympathetic regard, neither politics nor pageants divert him from the work he has pledged himself to do; I know of no man more fitted to be a Bishop." My mother bowed slightly, and said nothing, and really it was not easy to guess from the Warden's tone whether he considered any man fit to be a Bishop. "We think differently on many subjects, and on one, I may say, I think with perfect truth, we have differed so widely that a little less self-restraint on the one side or on the other would have brought us to the verge of a very vulgar quarrel. The Bishop preaches what is called Humanity, he practises Humanity, he would have a manufactory--which he would manage on a profit-sharing system--for Humanity pills, and make every young man in Oxford swallow two of them every morning. But there is another meaning to the word Humanity which has been lost sight of in this age of upheaval, it is 'classical learning.' Oxford has a duty to perform; it has something to teach in addition to the development of kindly feelings which must be taught at the mother's knee, and grow naturally if they are ever to be effective. We are attacked at Oxford by many kinds of outside influence, and you know enough of young men, madam, to realize that there is no influence which appeals to them so strongly as that which is outside, what I must call, constituted authority. The Bishop, in short, if I judge him with accuracy, thinks that Oxford is the finest playground for the East-end of London which can be imagined by the wit of man. On this point I disagree with him entirely, not from any dislike to the people of the East-end, but from a profound conviction that young men in Oxford, if they are to do their work with success, have already more than enough to occupy their minds."