He was at least ten years older than his wife, whom he called the "Skipper," greatly surprising and afterwards amusing John. He evidently troubled himself about nothing. If Marsh wanted anything, he was always told by the Vicar, "Ask the Skipper," or "Does the Skipper know?" On Saturday afternoon there was what Marsh assured John was the weekly tragi-comedy. He confessed he had not composed his sermon for the following day, and, like a penitent boy, was locked in his study with the threat that he should have no dinner until the sermon was completed. He must have been either a man of quick inspiration or short patience, for half an hour later as John walked by the study window he saw the vicar, pipe in mouth, stretched in his wicker chair, reading the _Nation_ which he waved joyously at John as though to say, "See! I defy the Skipper!" Later, John discovered that the Vicar was a rebel at heart. He read the _Nation_ religiously, and had an intense enthusiasm for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was saying rude things about persons who kept pheasants, greatly to the vicar's delight, who knew how angry it would make the new tenant of Renstone Hall, who stood for King, the Conservative party, a covert full of pheasants and a house full of servants. Teddie, partly from perversity, and partly because he felt the lordship of youth, was a conservative, like his mother, and they had fierce arguments, in which the Vicar bravely kept his flag flying, despite assaults on either flank. John's sympathies were with the Vicar. The Chancellor had the gift of phrase and epithet which he admired, and had also excelled in. He supported him therefore because that politician's brilliance delighted him. The Vicar was delighted. He ragged Teddie unmercifully, and commented gaily on the pleasure he derived from seeing that the new race at Sedley was enlightened, a playful thrust at his son's assumption of seniority in his attitude towards John in political discussions. John loved those tea-times when argument grew merry. It was all so good-humoured, the Vicar bantering his son and wife with great joy, they in their turn exposing his "democracy" by stories of a "brother" of the soil who had imposed upon him again and again.