For some three weeks the Archdeacon was in retirement,
broken only by the useful fidelity of Mrs. Lucksparrow
and the intrusive charity of Mr. Batesby, who, having
arrived at the Rectory for one reason, was naturally asked to
remain for another. As soon as the invalid was allowed to
receive visitors, Mr. Batesby carried the hint of the New
Testament, "I was sick and ye visited me" to an extreme
which made nonsense of the equally authoritative injunction
to be "wise as serpents." He was encouraged by the feeling
which both the doctor and Mrs. Lucksparrow had that it was
fortunate another member of the profession should be at
hand, and by the success with which the Archdeacon, dizzy
and yet equable, concealed his own feelings when his visitor,
chatting of Prayer Book Revision, parish councils, and Tithe
Acts, imported to them a high eternal flavour which savoured
of Deity Itself. Each day after he had gone the Archdeacon
found himself inclined to brood on the profound wisdom of
that phrase in the Athanasian Creed which teaches the faithful
that

"not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by
taking of the manhood into God"

"The dear flesh,"

-56-