the curate's wife and her two daughters and mrs jehoram were still playing at tennis on the lawn behind the vicar's study, playing keenly and talking in gasps about paper patterns for blouses. but the vicar forgot and came in that way.
they saw the vicar's hat above the rhododendrons, and a bare curly head beside him. "i must ask him about susan wiggin," said the curate's wife. she was about to serve, and stood with a racket in one hand and a ball between the fingers of the other. "he really ought to have gone to see her—being the vicar. not george. i——ah!"
for the two figures suddenly turned the corner and were visible. the vicar, arm in arm with——
[pg 39]
you see, it came on the curate's wife suddenly. the angel's face being towards her she saw nothing of the wings. only a face of unearthly beauty in a halo of chestnut hair, and a graceful figure clothed in a saffron garment that barely reached the knees. the thought of those knees flashed upon the vicar at once. he too was horrorstruck. so were the two girls and mrs jehoram. all horrorstruck. the angel stared in astonishment at the horrorstruck group. you see, he had never seen anyone horrorstruck before.
"mis—ter hilyer!" said the curate's wife. "this is too much!" she stood speechless for a moment. "oh!"
she swept round upon the rigid girls. "come!" the vicar opened and shut his voiceless mouth. the world hummed and spun about him. there was a whirling of zephyr skirts, four impassioned faces sweeping towards the open door of the passage that ran through the vicarage. he felt his position went with them.
"mrs mendham," said the vicar, stepping forward. "mrs mendham. you don't understand——"
[pg 40]
"oh!" they all said again.
one, two, three, four skirts vanished in the doorway. the vicar staggered half way across the lawn and stopped, aghast. "this comes," he heard the curate's wife say, out of the depth of the passage, "of having an unmarried vicar——." the umbrella stand wobbled. the front door of the vicarage slammed like a minute gun. there was silence for a space.
"i might have thought," he said. "she is always so hasty."
he put his hand to his chin—a habit with him. then turned his face to his companion. the angel was evidently well bred. he was holding up mrs jehoram's sunshade—she had left it on one of the cane chairs—and examining it with extraordinary interest. he opened it. "what a curious little mechanism!" he said. "what can it be for?"
the vicar did not answer. the angelic costume certainly was—the vicar knew it was a case for a french phrase—but he could scarcely remember it. he so rarely used french. it was not de trop, he knew. [pg 41]anything but de trop. the angel was de trop, but certainly not his costume. ah! sans culotte!
the vicar examined his visitor critically—for the first time. "he will be difficult to explain," he said to himself softly.
the angel stuck the sunshade into the turf and went to smell the sweet briar. the sunshine fell upon his brown hair and gave it almost the appearance of a halo. he pricked his finger. "odd!" he said. "pain again."
"yes," said the vicar, thinking aloud. "he's very beautiful and curious as he is. i should like him best so. but i am afraid i must."
he approached the angel with a nervous cough.
