John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 1 of 2)Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
History
John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 1 of 2)
Shorthouse, J. H. (Joseph Henry)
Great Britain -- History -- Charles I, 1625-1649 -- Fiction; Religious fiction
continue his endeavours after it, seeking it chiefly in the holy
Sacrament accompanied with mortification and confession.
While they were thus talking, the hour of evening prayer arrived, and
Mr. Ferrar invited Johnny to accompany him to the Church; which he
gladly did, being very much attracted by the evident holiness which
pervaded Mr. Ferrar’s talk and manner. The family proceeded to Church
in procession, Mr. Ferrar and Inglesant walking first. The Church was
kept in great order, the altar being placed upon a raised platform at
the east end, and covered with tapestry stretching over the floor all
round it, and adorned with plate and tapers. Mr. Ferrar bowed with great
reverence several times on approaching the altar, and directed Inglesant
to sit in a stalled seat opposite the reading pew, from which he said
the evening prayer. The men of the family knelt on the raised step
before the altar, the ladies and servants sitting in the body of the
Church. The Church was very sweet, being decked with flowers and herbs;
and the soft autumn light rested over it. From the seat where Inglesant
knelt, he could see the faces of the girls as they bent over their books
at prayers. They were all in black, except one, who wore a friar’s grey
gown; this was the one who was called the Patient, as Inglesant had been
told in the house, and the singularity of her dress attracted his eye
towards her during the prayers. The whole scene, strange and romantic
as it appeared to him, the devout and serious manner of the
worshippers—very different from much that was common in churches at that
day—and the abstracted and devout look upon the faces of the girls,
struck his fancy, so liable to such influences, and so long trained to
welcome them; and he could not keep his eyes from this one face from
which the grey hood was partly thrown back. It was a passive face, with
well-cut delicate features, and large and quiet eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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