When they were in the street Miss Lisle looked eagerly about her, and asked as they turned a corner, "Will this be our way to St. Sylvester's?"
"Yes. I suppose Bertie will make his début next Sunday? I must come and hear him."
"Of course you must," said Lisle. "Where do you generally go?"
"Well, for a walk generally. Sometimes it ends in some outlying church, sometimes not."
"Oh, but it's your duty to attend your parish church when I play there. I suppose St. Sylvester's _is_ your parish church?"
"Not a bit of it. St. Andrew's occupies that proud position. I've been there three times, I think."
"And what sort of a place is that?" said Miss Lisle.
"The dreariest, dustiest, emptiest place imaginable," Percival answered, turning quickly toward her. "There's an old clergyman, without a tooth in his head, who mumbles something which the congregation seem to take for granted is the service. Perhaps he means it for that: I don't know. He's the curate, I think, come to help the rector, who is getting just a little past his work. I don't remember that I ever saw the rector."
"Well, there's the clerk," said Percival thoughtfully; "and there's a weekly dole of bread left to fourteen poor men and fourteen poor women of the parish. They must be of good character and above the age of sixty-five. It is given away after the afternoon service. When I have been there, there has always been a congregation of thirty, without reckoning the clergyman." He paused in his walk. "Didn't you want a grocer, Miss Lisle? I don't do much of my shopping, but I believe this place is as good as any."
Judith went in, and the two young men waited outside. In something less than half a minute Lisle showed signs of impatience. He inspected the grocer's stock of goods through the window, and extended his examination to a toyshop beyond, where he seemed particularly interested in a small and curly lamb which stood in a pasture of green paint and possessed an underground squeak or baa. Finally, he returned to Thorne. "You like waiting, don't you?" he said.
"And I do: that's just the difference. Is there a stationer's handy?"
"At the end of the street, the first turning to the left."
"I want some music-paper: I can get it before Judith has done ordering in her supplies if I go at once."
