These state visits were not however very frequent and depended largely upon the guests who were staying for the week-end at the Hall.

If Mr.Blake discovered that these gentlemen were religiously inclined, he went to church.

If otherwise, and this was more common, acting on his principle of being all things to all men, he stopped away.
Personally he did not bother his head about the matter which, in secret, he looked upon as one of the ramifications of the great edifice of British cant.

The vast majority of people in his view went to church, not because they believed in anything or wished for instruction or spiritual consolation, but because it looked respectable, which was exactly why he did so himself.

Even then nearly always he sat alone in the oak box, his visitors generally preferring to occupy the pew in the nave which was frequented by Lady Jane and Isobel.
Nor did the two often meet socially since their natures were antipathetic.