TWO:He had steered the conversation away from the tidings that gleamed from Alices earnest eyes, he had taken it past that dangerous corner of religion, from which she might bolt back again to earnestness, and had brought it to its congenial{203} base of legitimate clerical flirtation, which allowed him to talk baby-talk with adoring parishioners, and squeeze hands and dab on the presumption that all this meant no more to anybody else than to him. This was pure assumption: it meant much more to poor Alice....Mrs Keeling became a shade statelier, without abatement of her extremely proper behavior.
