‘Oh, Master Kay,’ she said, ‘have you heard the news? The Bishop of Tatchester has disappeared.’ ‘What?’ Kay said. ‘The papers are full of it,’ Ellen said. ‘The reverend gentleman went out of the Palace last night for a brisk walk before going to bed according to his custom and he hasn’t come back, Master Kay.’ Kay opened the paper: ‘STARTLING DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BISHOP OF TATCHESTER ‘Considerable alarm was caused,’ he read, ‘in ecclesiastical circles last night when it was known that His Grace, the Bishop of Tatchester, had failed to return to the Palace and was not heard of at the time of our going to press. The very reverend gentleman had passed the evening at the Palace in making ready for the Christmas season and in dispatching his Christmas cards to the clergy of his Diocese, a duty that His Grace leaves to no hands but his own. On conclusion of this pleasant duty His Grace signified to his sister, Dame Eleanor Chasuble, that he would go for a brisk walk through the Precincts before retiring to rest.
