"I can't see where ridicule of Moral Law comes in, so far. What you _said_ was--well!--amounted to a condemnation of the _taste_ of men who wish to marry their wives' sisters. Perhaps I misunderstood?" Challis's manner had a flavour of personal interest; the amused tone had gone, and the last words ended on a pause for an answer, with an intention in them of hearing it and going on. The skein would run on easily from now, said the winder. But not too quick at first. "Oh no!--quite right," she said. "I meant that. For instance--I shouldn't mention this, only I see you guessed it. You are so quick at guessing things...." "I'm not. What do you suppose I have guessed?" "Why--about the Reverend Athelstan, of course, and Elizabeth Caldecott...." "Elizabeth who?" "Well--you _saw_ her, just now!" "I thought she was his sister?" "Oh, no!--sister-in-law." "What were you saying about them--just now? You began 'For instance,' and pulled up...." "I was going to say theirs was a case in point. If Mr. Taylor wanted to marry Miss Caldecott, I should consider it simply a lapse from good taste on his part. I shouldn't fret over the moralities. He and Bishop Barham would have to fight that out between them.... Oh dear!--what _has_ Saladin got? I'm afraid it's a hedgehog. _Do_ you think you could keep hold of him, just for a few seconds, while I throw it out of his reach?" This was achieved with difficulty; all the greater from a misconception of the position by Saladin, who thought it was all done for his sake, as a relaxation. The hedgehog was thrown over a long high wall, and Saladin ran along it each way, leaping up at intervals. "He gets so irritated with hedgehogs, and I don't wonder, poor darling! I hope he hasn't strained your hand?" Mr. Challis couldn't say very much about that. Nothing to speak of! "Let's go on. He'll get tired of that, and I don't hear the bull anywhere--it's all right. What was I saying?" It is perturbing to the non-bucolic mind to hear a necessary and inevitable bull taken as a matter of course. "You were speaking of Mr. Taylor and Miss Caldecott. Is he supposed to want to marry her?" "I really couldn't say. Men are so odd. Of course, if she were less angular...." The young lady blew a whistle for Saladin. The intentness with which both watched for the dog to appear from the quarter he was last seen in enabled him to play off a little joke at their expense. For when Challis turned his head, after much watching and whistling, there was that confounded beast, pretending all the while to wait, after a brief circuit of a mile or so out of sight. He made a pretence of not being able to understand motives, combined with great forbearance in not asking for an explanation of them.