The House of Quiet: An AutobiographyBenson, Arthur Christopher
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The House of Quiet: An Autobiography
Benson, Arthur Christopher
Country life -- England -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Invalids -- Fiction
At his request I accompanied him to church and vicarage. At the latter,
he said to me frankly that he was a poor man, and that he would not be
able to keep it up in the same style—“Indeed,” he said with a smile, “I
don’t think it would be right to do so.” I said that I didn’t think it
very material, but that as a matter of fact I thought that the perfection
of Mr. Woodward’s arrangements had had a humanising influence in the
place. At the church he was pleased at the neatness and general air of
use that the building had; but he looked with disfavour at the simple
arrangements of the chancel. I noticed that he bowed and murmured a few
words of prayer when he entered the building. When we had examined the
church he said to me, “To speak frankly, Mr. ——,—I don’t know what your
views are,—but what is the church tone of this place like?” I said that
I hardly knew how to describe it—the church certainly played a large
part in the lives of the parishioners; but that I supposed that Mr.
Woodward would perhaps be called old-fashioned. “Yes, indeed,” sighed Mr.
Cuthbert, looking wearily round and shrugging his shoulders. “The altar
indeed is distinctly dishonouring to the Blessed Sacrament—no attempt at
Catholic practice or tradition. There is not, I see, even a second altar
in the church; but, please God, if He sends me here we will change all
that.”
Before we left the church he fell on his knees and prayed with absolute
self-absorption.
When we got outside he said to me: “May I tell you something? I have just
returned from a visit to a friend of mine, a priest at A——; he has got
everything—simply everything; he is a noble fellow—if I could but hope to
imitate him.”
A—— was, I knew, a great railway depôt, and thinking that Mr. Cuthbert
did not fully understand how very rural a parish we were, I said, “I am
afraid there is not very much scope here for great activity. We have a
reading-room and a club, but it has never been a great success—the people
won’t turn out in the evenings.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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