ROBERT.  Then you’d better look slippy!

BISHOP.  I beg your pardon? . . .

ROBERT [with a flap at the trumpet].  Go on:  you ’eard.

BISHOP.  Of course, the financial undertaking is considerable:  it’s not like an investment, where there is some reasonable hope of a return:  it’s merely a matter of charity!  The money’s—­gone, so to speak.

ROBERT.  Yus, I’ve noticed that about money, myself.

BISHOP.  At the same time, I should like my name to be associated with your brother’s, in so worthy an enterprise . . .

ROBERT [mildly sarcastic].  You don’t say!

BISHOP.  And then again, I trust—­I say I trust—­I am not impervious to the more sacred obligations involved; but . . .

[He gropes blindly for bread.]

ROBERT.  I allus notice that sort of ’igh talk ends with a “but” . . .

BISHOP.  Naturally, I should like to learn a little, beforehand, of your brother’s views.  From what I gather, they are not altogether likely to coincide with my own.  Of course, he is an idealist, a dreamer.  Now, under these circumstances, perhaps . . .

Eh, what—­ Oh!  Bless my soul!

[MANSON has been offering him bread for some time.  He has just tumbled to the fact of his presence.  He rises.]

My—­my Brother from Benares, I presume?

ROBERT.  What, my pal, ’is brother!  Oh, Je’oshaphat!

BISHOP.  Ten thousand pardons!  Really, my eyesight is deplorable! 
Delighted to meet you! . . .

I was just observing to our charming host that—­er—­ Humph! . . .

Bless me!  Now what was I . . .

MANSON.  Something about your sacred obligations, I believe.

BISHOP.  May I trouble you again?

[MANSON gravely fixes the ear-trumpet in his ear.]

ROBERT.  That’s right:  stick the damned thing in ’is ear-’ole, comride!

MANSON [through the trumpet].  Your sacred obligations.

BISHOP.  Precisely, precisely!  Er—­ Shall we sit?

[They do so.  The BISHOP looks to MANSON to begin.  MANSON, failing him, the spirit begins to work within himself.]

Well—­er—–­speaking of that, of course, my dearly-beloved brother, I feel very seriously on the matter, very seriously—­as I am sure you do.  The restoration of a church is a tremendous, an overwhelming responsibility.  To begin with, it—­it costs quite a lot.  Doesn’t it?

MANSON.  It does:  quite a lot.

BISHOP.  Hm, yes—­yes! . . .  You mentioned Sacred obligations just now, and I think that on the whole I am inclined to agree with you.  It is an admirable way of putting it.  We must awaken people to a sense of their sacred obligations.  This is a work in which everybody can do something:  the rich man can give of the abundance with which it has pleased