Very well. I would not
for worlds spoil Frederick's half-holiday by shaming him in the eyes
of his schoolfellows."
"What do you propose to do about it, then? You can't alter your hat
now."
"No," I said, "I can't; but I can get out of the train at the next
station and go home and leave you in your comparative spickness and
your relative spanness to spend your afternoon with the boy. Or, stay,
there must be a shop in Belfield where top-hats can be bought. It is a
cathedral city and possesses dignitaries of the Church who still wear
top-hats, and----"
"But those are special top-hats. You couldn't go to Frederick in a
bishop's hat, now could you?"
"No-o-o," I said doubtfully, "perhaps I couldn't. But suppose I wore
the gaiters too--wouldn't that make it all right?"
"I should like," she said, "to see Frederick's face on perceiving the
new bishop."
"Francesca," I said, "you talk as if no boys ever had bishops for
their fathers. Let me assure you, on the contrary, that there are many
bishops who have large families of both sexes. I once stayed with a
bishop, and I never heard anybody attempt to make a mockery of his
gaiters.
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