Unhappily Mr. Parchester did not go home. He went out from the
Bishop's residence stunned and amazed, and suddenly upon his
desolation came the thought of Mrs. Munbridge....
She would understand....
He was shown up to her own little sitting-room. She had already gone
up to her room to dress, but when she heard that he had called, and
wanted very greatly to see her, she slipped on a loose, beautiful
tea-gown _neglige_ thing, and hurried to him. He tried to tell her
everything, but she only kept saying "There! there!" She was sure he
wanted a cup of tea, he looked so pale and exhausted. She rang to have
the tea equipage brought back; she put the dear saint in an arm-chair
by the fire; she put cushions about him, and ministered to him. And
when she began partially to comprehend what he had experienced, she
suddenly realized that she too had experienced it. That vision had
been a brain-wave between their two linked and sympathetic brains. And
that thought glowed in her as she brewed his tea with her own hands.
He had been weeping! How tenderly he felt all these things! He was
more sensitive than a woman. What madness to have expected
understanding from the Bishop! But that was just like his
unworldliness. He was not fit to take care of himself. A wave of
tenderness carried her away. "Here is your tea!" she said, bending
over him, and fully conscious of her fragrant warmth and sweetness,
and suddenly, she could never afterwards explain why she was so, she
was moved to kiss him on his brow....
How indescribable is the comfort of a true-hearted womanly friend! The
safety of it! The consolation!...
About half-past seven that evening Mr. Parchester returned to his own
home, and Brompton admitted him. Brompton was relieved to find his
employer looking quite restored and ordinary again. "Brompton," said
Mr. Parchester, "I will not have the usual dinner to-night. Just a
single mutton cutlet and one of those quarter-bottles of Perrier Jouet
on a tray in my study. I shall have to finish my sermon to-night."
(And he had promised Mrs. Munbridge he would preach that sermon
specially for her.)