"I'm not surprised that your church was so full on Sunday," Errington
told him, "now that I've met you. If the Church of England clergy, as a
whole, were as human as you are, you would have fewer offshoots from your
Established Church. I always think"--reminiscently--"that that is where
the strength of the Roman Catholic _padre_ lies--in his intense
_humanness_."

The Sector looked up in surprise.

"Then you're not a member of our Church?" he asked.

For a moment Errington looked embarrassed, as though he had said more
than he wished to.

"Oh, I was merely comparing the two," he replied evasively. "I have
lived abroad a good bit, you know."

"Ah! That explains it, then," said Stair. "You've caught some little
foreign turns of speech. Several times I've wondered if you were
entirely English."

Errington's face, as he turned to reply, wore that politely blank
expression which Diana had encountered more than once when conversing
with him--always should she chance to touch on any subject the natural
answer to which might have revealed something of the man's private life.

"Oh," he answered the Rector lightly, "I believe there's a dash of
foreign blood in my veins, but I've a right to call myself an Englishman."

After dinner, while the two men had their smoke, Diana, heedless of