The Bishop's Confession

The Bishop took up the conversation.

"You are thoroughly British, Mr. Griffin, or you would not have said 'Your Lordship.' The bishops in England are all addressed in that way, are they not?"

"Of course, and here also. Did I not hear Father Murray--"

"Oh, Father Murray is quite different. He is a convert, and rather inclined to be punctilious. Then, too, he is from England. In America the best we get as a rule is just plain 'Bishop.' One of your own kind of Bishops--an Episcopalian--I knew him well and a charming man he was--told me that in England he was 'My Lorded' and 'Your Lordshiped' everywhere, until he had gotten quite used to the dignity of it. But when he stepped on the dock at New York, one of his lay intimates took all the pomposity out of him by a sound slap on the back and the greeting, 'Hello, Bish, home again?'"

"It was very American, that," said Mark. "We wouldn't understand it."

"But we do. I wouldn't want anyone to go quite that far, of course. I have nerves. But I confess I rather like the possibility of it--so long as it stays a possibility only. We Yankees are a friendly lot, but not at all irreverent. A bishop has to be 'right' on the manhood side as well as on the side of his office. That's the way we look at it."