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
Inglesant inquired concerning the assumed names of the sisters and how
they sustained their respective qualities, and what exercises suited to
these qualities they had to perform. She replied that they had
exercises, or discourses, which they performed at the great festivals of
the year, Christmas and Easter; and which were composed with reference
to their several qualities. All of these, except her own, were
enlivened by hymns and odes composed by Mr. Ferrar, and set to music by
the music master of the family, who accompanied the voices with the viol
or the lute. But her own, she said, had never any music or poetry
connected with it; it was always of a very serious turn, and much longer
than any other, and had not any historical anecdote or fable interwoven
with it, the contrivance being to exercise that virtue to which she was
devoted. Inglesant asked her with pity if this was not very hard
treatment, and she only replied, with a smile, that she had the
enjoyment of all the lively performances of the others. He asked her
whether they looked forward to passing all their lives in this manner,
or whether they allowed the possibility of any change, and if she had
entirely lost her own name in her assumed one, or whether he might
presume to ask it, that he might have wherewithal to remember her by, as
he surely should as long as he had life. She said her name was Mary
Collet; and that as to his former question, two of her sisters had had,
at one time, a great desire to become veiled virgins, to take upon them
a vow of perpetual chastity, with the solemnity of a Bishop’s blessing
and ratification, but on going to Bishop Williams he had discouraged,
and at last, dissuaded them from it.
Inglesant and the young lady remained talking in this way for some time,
young Nicholas Ferrar having left them; but at last she excused herself
from staying any longer, and he was obliged to let her go. He ventured
to say that he hoped they would remember him, that he was utterly
ignorant of the future that lay before him, but that whatever fate
awaited him, he should never forget the "Nuns of Gidding" and their
religious life. She replied that they would certainly remember him, as
they did all their acquaintance, in their daily prayer, especially as
she had seldom seen her uncle so pleased with a stranger as he had been
with him. With these compliments they parted, and Inglesant returned to
the drawing-room, where more visitors had arrived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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