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The
Third Volume
When Spenser
Tait took his seat at the breakfast table, he
cast a look around, according to custom, to see
that all was as orderly as he could wish. The
neatest and most methodical of men, he was
positively old maidish in his love of regularity
and tidiness. His valet, Dormer,—with him for
over fifteen years,—had been trained by such
long service into the particular ways of his
master, and was almost as exacting as Tait
himself in the matter of domestic details. No
woman was permitted to penetrate into those
chambers in Earls Street, St. James’; but had
one been able to do so, she could have found no
fault with them, either on the score of taste or
of cleanliness. The shell of this hermit crab
was eloquent of the idiosyncrasies of its tenant.
The main characteristic of the breakfast room
was one of severe simplicity. The carpet of
green drappled brown, the curtains to match, and
the furniture of oak, polished and dark. On the
white cloth of the table an appetizing breakfast
was set out in silver and china, and a vase of
flowers showed that the little gentleman was not
unmindful of the requirements of an artistic
temperament. Even the Times, carefully cut and
warmed, was neatly folded by the silver ringed
napkin, and Dormer, standing stiff and lean by
his master’s chair, was calmly satisfied that no
fault could be found with his work. For the past
fifteen years, save on occasions of foreign
travel, the same etiquette had been observed,
the same actions performed, for, like the laws
of the Medes and Persians, the habits of Tait
were fixed and determined...
 The
Bishop's Secret
Of late years an anonymous mathematician
has declared that in the British Isles the
female population is seven times greater than
the male; therefore, in these days is fulfilled
the scriptural prophecy that seven women shall
lay hold of one man and entreat to be called by
his name. Miss Daisy Norsham, a veteran
Belgravian spinster, decided, after some
disappointing seasons, that this text was
particularly applicable to London. Doubtful,
therefore, of securing a husband at the rate of
one chance in seven, or dissatisfied at the
prospect of a seventh share in a man, she
resolved upon trying her matrimonial fortunes in
the country. She was plain, this lady, as she
was poor; nor could she rightly be said to be in
the first flush of maidenhood. In all matters
other than that of man-catching she was shallow
past belief. Still, she did hope, by dint of
some brisk campaigning in the diocese of
Beorminster, to capture a whole man unto herself.
Her first step was to wheedle an invitation out
of Mrs Pansey, an archdeacon’s widow—then on a
philanthropic visit to town—and she arrived,
towards the end of July, in the pleasant
cathedral city of Beorminster, in time to attend
a reception at the bishop’s palace. Thus the
autumn manœuvres of Miss Norsham opened most
auspiciously...

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