She and I, Volume 1: A Love Story. A Life History.Hutcheson, John C. (John Conroy)
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She and I, Volume 1: A Love Story. A Life History.
Hutcheson, John C. (John Conroy)
Love stories
One Sunday--it is not so long ago that my hair is grey, nor so recently
as to prevent my having a story to tell--I was in Saint Canon's church,
sitting in one of its old, square box pews, where one was, as it were,
shut up in a small, private house, away from all connection with the
outer world; for you could not see anything when the door was closed,
with the exception of the roof overhead, and, mayhap, the walls around.
I was listening to the varied fugue introitus that the organist was
playing from the gallery beyond the pulpit,--playing with the full wind
power of the venerable reed instrument he skilfully manipulated, having
all the stops out,--diapasons, trumpet, vox humana, and the rest. The
music was from Handel, a composer of whom the maestro was especially
fond; so fond, indeed, that any of the congregation who might have the
like musical proclivities need seldom fear disappointment. They could
reckon upon hearing the Hallelujah Chorus at least once a fortnight, and
the lesser morceaux of _Israel in Egypt_ at intervals in between.
Presently, just before the vicar and curate made their customary
processional entry, ere the service began, two ladies were ushered into
the large pew which I occupied alone in solitary state. There was room
enough, in all conscience. It could have accommodated a round dozen,
and that without any squeezing.
Both the ladies were dressed in half-mourning, which attracted my
attention and made me observe them more closely than I might otherwise
have done. My mind was soon engaged wondering, as one is apt to do--
when in church, more particularly--who and what they were. One, I saw,
was middle-aged: the other had not, probably, as yet reached her
eighteenth year; and what a charming face she had,--what an expression!
I could not take my eyes off her.
How shall I describe her? I had ample opportunity of taking a study, as
she faced me on the opposite side of the pew, seated beside the other
and elder lady, who, I could see at a glance, was her mother, from the
striking likeness between them--although, there was a wonderful
difference the while.
Have you never observed the slight, yet unmistakable traits of family
resemblance, and the various points in which they are displayed? They
may sometimes be only traceable in a single feature, a smile, a look, or
in some peculiar mannerism of speech, or action, or even thought; but
there they are; and, however indistinct they may be, however faint on
casual inspection, a practised eye can seldom fail to perceive them and
distinguish the relationship betwixt father and son, or mother and
daughter:--the kinship of brothers and sisters is not so evident to
strangers. In the present case no one could doubt: the younger lady
must certainly be the daughter of the other.
But, what was she like, you ask?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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