On the contrary, he appeared to regard it in the light of a highly improbable and quite undesirable contingency." "He must be lacking in appreciation," murmured Stair mockingly, pinching her cheek as he passed her on his way to select a pipe from the array that adorned the chimney-piece.
"Are you going 'parishing' this morning ?" inquired Diana, as she watched him fill and light his pipe.
"Yes, I promised to visit Susan Gurney--she's laid up with rheumatism, poor old soul." "Then I'll drive you, shall I?
I suppose you've still got Tommy and the ralli-cart ?" "Yes," replied Stair gravely.

"Notwithstanding diminishing tithes and increasing taxes, Tommy is still left to us.

Apparently he thrives on a penurious diet, for he is fatter than ever." Accordingly, half an hour later, the two set out behind the fat pony on a round of parochial visits.

Underneath the seat of the trap reposed the numerous little packages of tea and tobacco with which the Rector, whose hand was always in his pocket, rarely omitted to season his visits to the sick among his parishioners.
"And why not ?" he would say, when charged with pampering them by some starchy member of his congregation who considered that parochial visitation should be embellished solely by the delivery of appropriate tracts.

"And why not pamper them a bit, poor souls?
A pipe of baccy goes a long way towards taking your thoughts off a bad leg--as I found out for myself when I was laid up with an attack of the gout my maternal grandfather bequeathed me." Whilst the Rector paid his visits, Diana waited outside the various cottages, driving the pony-trap slowly up and down the road, and stopping every now and again to exchange a few words with one or another of the village folk as they passed.
She was frankly delighted to be home again, and was experiencing that peculiar charm of the Devonshire village which lies in the fact that you may go away from it for several years and return to find it almost unchanged.