“I shouldn’t wonder if they began tennis before tea,” he remarked. “You’ll find somebody to play a single. Good-bye!” He was turning away eagerly when something occurred to me. “Oh, by the way, Mr Davenport----” “Yes?” “Do you think you’ll ever be a bishop really?” “Only when I talk to her,” he said, with a confused yet candid modesty which I found agreeable. “Go and do homage for your temporalities,” I said. “I say--her mother!” whispered Mr Davenport. “She probably thought the same when she married the vicar.” He smiled. “That’s rather funny!” he cried back to me, as he started off along the road. “So your son-in-law may think some day, my boy,” said I with a touch of ill-humour. No matter, he was out of hearing. Besides I was not, I repeat, really serious about it--not half so serious, I venture to conjecture, as the vicar’s wife! To her, perhaps, Dr Johnson’s paraphrase may be recommended. THE OPENED DOOR “We may float for ten minutes,” said the Second Officer. After a pause the passenger remarked: “I’m glad of it, upon my word I am.” “You’re thankful for small mercies,” was the retort. The passenger did not explain. He could not expect the Second Officer, or the rest of them, to sympathise with his point of view, or share the feelings which made him rejoice, not at the respite, but at the doom itself. Those who were not busy getting the women and children into the boats, and keeping the ship above water, were cursing the other vessel for steaming away without offering aid, or clutching in bewildered terror at anyone who could tell them how the collision had happened and what hope there was of salvation. The boats were got safely off, laden to their utmost capacity; lifebuoys were handed round, and, when they ran short, men tossed up for them, and the losers ransacked the deck for some makeshift substitute. The passenger took no part in the competition or the search. He stood with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his lips, waiting for the ten minutes to wear themselves away. His only grudge against fate lay in those superfluous ten minutes.