As far as religion was concerned, the Mannings made a point of going to church with the children every Sunday morning when it was fine, or they were not late for breakfast, or Francis did not feel inclined for a walk. Sometimes he went off golfing for the day, and then Mrs Manning dressed Maud in her best clothes and they went to church together. She had been brought up to go to church, and thought the habit "nice." Besides it was pleasant to see friends coming out, and walk home with Mrs Lane, her favourite neighbour. They would meet on the path outside the graveyard, and turn uphill together, and Mrs Lane would say: "_What_ a sermon! My dear, _did_ you see the woman in the pew before ours? She came in late, just before the psalms. She took off her coat, _and_, my dear, her blouse--" She would proceed to describe the blouse in detail, and Mrs Manning would sigh and say: "It _is_ nice to have something interesting to look at in the next pew! We have those awful Miss Newtes." The neighbours on both sides envied the Francis Mannings, and quoted their doings with admiration. In the matter of holidays, for instance, how sane and sensible were their arrangements! The children were sent with their nurses to the sea, the father enjoyed himself on Scottish golf links; the mother toured abroad with a woman friend. Each autumn the neighbours agreed to profit by the example of the Francis Mannings, and to do likewise the next summer; but somehow it never came off. When spring came round the wife would conscientiously remind her husband of the resolve, and urge him to keep it, while gracefully withdrawing herself. "Margot has had several of those bad chest colds," she would explain. "I should be so anxious in case she caught a chill. It really is my duty to go with the children but _you_, dear, you could quite well--" "Well! I don't know," the husband would reply. "What would become of you in the evenings? And I promised to teach Jack to swim. I think, on the whole, we'd better stick to the old arrangement this summer." So once more they would depart _en famille_ to the seaside, and stay in lodgings, and be happy in the old domesticated fashion. But also, quite frequently, bored!