'_Joie de rue, douleur de
maison_.' Well, and so, to upset Marsham, you are going to let the
Tories in, eh?--with all the old tyrannies and briberies on their
shoulders?--naked and unashamed. Hullo!"--he looked round him--"don't
tell Patricia I said so--or Hugh."
"There is no room for a middle party," was the Vicar's fierce reply.
"Socialists on the one side, Tories on the other!--that'll be the
Armageddon of the future."
The doctor, declining to be drawn, nodded placidly through the clouds of
smoke that enwrapped him. The Vicar hurried away, accompanied, however,
furtively to the door, even to the gate of the drive, by Mrs.
Roughsedge, who had questions to ask.
She came back presently with a thoughtful countenance.
"I asked him what he thought I ought to do about those tales I told you
of."
"Why don't you settle for yourself?" cried the doctor, testily. "That is
the way you women flatter the pride of these priests!"
"Not at all. _You_ make him talk nonsense; I find him a fount of
wisdom."
"I admit he knows some moral theology," said Roughsedge, thoughtfully.
"He has thought a good deal about 'sins' and 'sin.' Well, what was his
view about these particular 'sinners'?"
"He thinks Diana ought to know.
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