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                          THE BISHOP’S APRON




                          THE BISHOP’S APRON

                        A STUDY IN THE ORIGINS
                           OF A GREAT FAMILY

                                  BY

                             W. S. MAUGHAM

             AUTHOR OF “LIZA OF LAMBETH,” “MRS. CRADDOCK,”
                         “THE MERRY-GO-ROUND”


                                LONDON

                        CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD.

                                 1906




                          THE BISHOP’S APRON




I


The world takes people very willingly at the estimate in which they hold
themselves. With a fashionable bias for expression in a foreign tongue
it calls modesty _mauvaise honte_; and the impudent are thought merely
to have a proper opinion of their merit. But Ponsonby was really an
imposing personage. His movements were measured and noiseless; and he
wore the sombre garb of a gentleman’s butler with impressive dignity. He
was a large man, flabby and corpulent, with a loose, smooth skin. His
face, undisturbed by the rapid