“You thought it was for the sake of the architecture....”
“Then why do you not come home and spend Christmas with your mother!”
“Christmas! Well, I suppose I ought to. But it will be hard to bear with the plain Protestantism, the smug materialism of Sussex at such a season; and when one thinks what the day is commemorative of—”
“You surely do not mean that you would prefer to see the people starving? If your dislike of Protestantism rests only on roast beef and plum pudding....”
“No, you don’t understand. But I beg your pardon—I had really forgotten ....”
“Never mind,” said Mr Hare smiling; “continue: we were talking of roast beef and plum pudding—”
“Well, roast beef and plum pudding, say what you like, is a very complete figuration of the Protestant ideal. Now let us think of Sussex
