midday
They both looked upwards towards the Cathedral , and on the lady 's face there was a rapt expression which was remarked by Mrs. Soper . `` She do look religious , '' murmured that lady to the tooth . `` She might be a bishop 's lady when she a-stands like that . '' The chimes died away , the visitors resumed their pacing walk , and Mrs. Soper presently retired to the kitchen , which looked out on the passage-way , to cook herself `` a bit of something '' for the midday staying of her stomach . In the garden that morning Rosamund and Father Robertson became friends . Rosamund had never had an Anglican confessor , though she had sometimes wished to confess , not because she was specially conscious of a burden of sin , but rather because she longed to speak to some one of those inmost thoughts which men and women seldom care to discuss with those who are always in their lives . In Father Robertson she had found the exceptional man with whom she would not mind being perfectly frank about matters which were not for Dion , not for Beattie , not for godfather -- matters which she could never have hinted at even to Canon Wilton , whose strong serenity she deeply admired .