since that fortune-teller at Harrogate told her that he saw a palace in her tea-leaves. Well, I'm not going to have you disappoint mother if I can help it. I don't pretend that I'm exorbitantly fond of her, but she's not half a bad old soul and I don't care to see her vexed. So what you've got to do, my jolly old hierophant, is to concentrate on the next rung upwards of the ladder of ecclesiastical preferment and put out of your mind all thoughts of claiming public recognition for your talents as a novelizer."
The Archdeacon leaned his head on his hand and stared downwards upon the cloth.
"I've thought of all this, Chloë," he said brokenly. "It's not lightly that I've come to this resolution to announce myself as the author of these two books. I realise perfectly that to do so will be to
