'Staying,' said Baby.
Mrs Mathervitie studied them critically with the air of a connoisseur of irregular relationships.
'I only got singles,' she said and spat into the hub of a sun flower, 'no doubles.'
'Praise be the Lord,' said Baby involuntarily.
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie.
They went into the house and down a passage.
'This is yourn,' said Mrs Mathervitie to Piper and opened a door. The room looked out on to a patch of corn. On the wall there was an oleograph of Christ scourging the moneylenders from the temple and a cardboard sign that decreed NO BROWNBAGGING. Piper looked at it dubiously. It seemed a thoroughly unnecessary injunction.
'Well?' said Mrs Mathervitie.
'Very nice,' said Piper who had spotted a row of books on a shelf. He looked at them and found they were all Bibles. 'Good Lord,' he muttered.
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie and went off with Baby down the passage leaving Piper to consider the sinister implications of NO BROWNBAGGING. By the time they returned he was no nearer a solution to the riddle.
'The Reverend and I are happy to accept your hospitality,' said Baby. 'Aren't we, Reverend?'
'What?' said Piper. Mrs Mathervitie was looking at him with new interest.
'I was just telling Mrs Mathervitie how interested you are in American religion,' said Baby. Piper swallowed and tried to think what to say.
'Yes,' seemed the safest.
There was an extremely awkward silence broken finally by Mrs Mathervitie's business sense.
'Ten dollars a day. Seven with prayers. Providence is extra.'
'Yes, well I suppose it would be,' said Piper.
'Meaning?' said Mrs Mathervitie.
'That the good Lord will provide,' interjected Baby before Piper's slight hysteria could manifest itself again.
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie. 'Well which is it to be? With prayers or without?'
'With,' said Baby.
'Fourteen dollars,' said Mrs Mathervitie, 'in advance.'
'Pay now and pray later?' said Piper hopefully.
Mrs Mathervitie's eyes gleamed coldly. 'For a preacher...' she began but Baby intervened.
'The Reverend means we should pray without ceasing.'
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie and knelt on the linoleum.'
Baby followed her example. Piper looked down at them in astonishment.
'Dear God,' he muttered.
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie and Baby in unison. 'Say the good words, Reverend,' said Baby.
'For Christ's sake,' said Piper fighting for inspiration. He didn't know any prayers and as for good words...On the floor Mrs Mathervitie twitched dangerously. Piper found the good words. They came from The Moral Novel.
'It is our duty not to enjoy but to appreciate,' he intoned, 'not to be entertained but to be edified, not to read that we may escape the responsibilities of life but that, through reading, we may more properly understand what it is that we are and do and that born anew in the vicarious experience of others we may extend our awareness and our sensibilities and so enriched by how we read we may be better human beings.'
'Amen,' said Mrs Mathervitie fervently. 'Amen,' said Baby.
'Amen,' said Piper and sat down on the bed. Mrs Mathervitie got to her feet.
