G. A. Birmingham
Minnie's Bishop and Other Stories
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066422820
Table of Contents
V.—FOR THE FAMINE OF YOUR HOUSES
XXVI.—THE FATE OF JOHN GOODENOUGH
I.—MINNIE'S BISHOP
I
REALLY, Ronald," said Ethel Mendel, "your mother is very unreasonable. Just now, too, when we are having such a pleasant time."
She spoke to her husband, who was arranging a salmon cast in the smoking-room. The post had just arrived and she held an open letter in her hand. He glanced at it apprehensively. His mother was an old lady who made unreasonable demands of her children and usually carried through any scheme in which she was interested without regard for the feelings of other people.
"What is she at now?" he asked.
"She is sending a bishop here," said Mrs. Mendel. "And he is to stay a week."
"Good Heavens! We can't possibly have a bishop here. It—it wouldn't be decent."
The Mendels had taken a house in Connemara for the month of August, a house with some good fishing attached to it. Gilbert Hutchinson, a keen angler quite uninterested in bishops, was with them. Minnie, Ronald's youngest sister, had been admitted to the party as a companion for Mrs. Mendel.
"This is a most unsuitable place for any bishop," said Ronald, "and we are not at all the sort of people——"
Mrs. Mendel drew herself up.
"After all," she said, "we're not doing anything wrong. The apostles fished."
"But they didn't play bridge after dinner."
"We shall have to give up bridge while he's here. Your mother says he won't stay more than a week, and he may go away sooner."
Ronald referred to the letter which his wife handed to him.
"He wants," he said, "to see something of the west of Ireland while he's at home. At home! Where does he come from?"
"India, apparently. If you'd begun at the beginning of your mother's letter instead of the middle you'd have seen that at once."
"Then he's not a proper bishop, at all."
"Oh, yes, he is. He's a missionary bishop, and that's just the same as the ordinary kind, only worse; more severe, I mean."
"Minnie will have to stop smoking cigarettes in the drawing-room," said Ronald.
"Minnie is rather a difficulty. She's just the sort of girl who enjoys shocking people."
"She mustn't do it in my house," said Ronald. "I may not care for having bishops dumped down on me in this way, but while they're here they must be treated with proper respect. I'll speak to Minnie myself."
"Do. And, Ronald dear, before he comes I think you might lock up that novel you got the other day. I haven't read it, of course, but from what you told me I don't think——"
"There's nothing in the novel half so risqué as the things Minnie frequently says. I hope you'll make her understand "
"I thought you said you'd speak to her."
"I shall, about the smoking. The other warning will come better from you. When does the bishop arrive?"
"He may be here to-morrow," said Mrs. Mendel. "His plans appear to be rather unsettled. He is to drop in on us whenever he finds himself in this neighbourhood. Your mother says we're to have a room ready for him. Be sure to give Mr. Hutchinson a hint not to leave those sporting papers of his lying about. I wouldn't like the bishop to think we read them. They're—well, not very religious, are they, Ronald?"
"If