“Do not be impertinent, Pickering. I asked you a plain question, and I told you what I should do in your place. A man like you, that has been so long about the Abbey, might be of great use to your master. You should tell him that in England a lady is never suffered to open her mouth in church. I never heard of anything so unecclesiastical. I wonder the Dean does not interfere--a man of good Church principles as he is, and with so much at stake. I really wonder the Dean does not interfere.” “Oh, the Dean!” said the other lady; “and as for Church principles----” But just then there was a tremble in the air with the first movement of the matin bells, and, without compromising his dignity or showing his ignorance, old Pick made good his escape. He went home in anything but an amiable state of mind, and went straight to the kitchen, where Mrs. Purcell was busy, as was natural at this time of the day, putting all in order and arranging for the Signor’s dinner. The luncheon Mary Anne was quite equal to, but some one was coming to dinner, for whom Mrs. Purcell intended to exercise all her powers. Pick went in with a fierce glow of indignant animation, with his roll of commissions fulfilled and unfulfilled. “There’s no sweetbreads to be had,” he said, “till Saturday; they’ll save you a pair on Saturday, if you send the order with the man when he comes; but they’ll be six-and-six, if you think that too dear. (Dear! I should think it was dear. How much o’ that goes to the veal, I wonder, and the man as fed it?) And as for game! you might as well go a-shooting on the Slopes; and what there is bringing its weight in gold. I wouldn’t give in, if I was you, to that fashion about grouse. It’s all a fashion. Nobody ever thought of grouse in my young days, and coming after they’ve eat everything as they can set their face to. What should they want with it? I’ve brought you the lemons. Many a man wouldn’t be seen carrying a bag o’ lemons all the way up the hill; and everything’s kep’ from me, just because I’m too humble-minded, and don’t make no stand, nor mind what I do.” “What’s been kep’ from you, Pick?” said Mrs. Purcell, pausing in her work to look at him. Then she added, “There’s been a deal of talking in the study. I’ve picked up a word or two about some woman, for they were going on about She; and She--but whether it’s that Miss Despard, or who it is, John’s never said a word to me.”