The Lindsays : $b A romance of Scottish life, Volume 1 (of 3)Leys, John K. (John Kirkwood)
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The Lindsays : $b A romance of Scottish life, Volume 1 (of 3)
Leys, John K. (John Kirkwood)
Scotland -- Fiction
Duncan Cameron had felt the spell of Margaret’s beauty, as everyone
did who approached her. But he had made a bad beginning in his
intercourse with her, and he now felt a strong sense of repulsion
mingling with his admiration. It was not only that he despised her
narrowness of mind; there was between the two something of the old
antagonism between Cavalier and Puritan. For the rest of his stay at
Castle Farm he avoided meeting her alone, and only spoke to her when
ordinary politeness required it. And yet, whenever she addressed him,
he felt that the fascination of her beauty was as strong as ever. When
Alec came home on the day of the curling-match, and shouted out in
triumph that Muirburn had won, Margaret’s eyes flashed, and her cheek
flushed in sympathy; and Cameron, watching her, forgot that she had not
forgiven him for his lack of sympathy with the men of Drumclog.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] A lawyer.
[5] Hard.
CHAPTER IX.
THE END OF THE SESSION.
At the end of the appointed week the two young men returned to Glasgow,
and braced themselves up for the remaining four months of work. At
the northern Universities the academic year ends (except for a few
supplementary medical classes) with the 1st of May. Alec Lindsay had a
great deal of leeway to make up, as he had never had a proper grounding
in either Latin or Greek; but he did his best, and felt pretty sure of
being able to take at least one prize.
Of course he found his way back to the Church of England chapel at
which he had seen Miss Mowbray; and on more than one occasion he was
gratified by a sight of her. As to the Anglican form of worship, he
regarded it with very mixed feelings. He was pleased by the stately
simplicity of the collects, and by the rhythm of the chants. The
service was free from the monotony of the Presbyterian form, and it was
more ‘congregational’ than anything to which he had been accustomed.
But it was some time before he could divest himself of the idea that he
was witnessing a kind of religious entertainment, ingeniously devised
and interesting, but by no means tending to edification. He felt like
his countrywoman, who when taken to a service at Westminster Abbey
said afterwards: ‘It was very fine--but eh! that was an awfu’ way o’
spending the Sabbath!’ The voice of conscience is as loud when it
condemns the infraction of a rule founded only in prejudice as when
it protests against a breach of the moral law itself; and for several
Sunday evenings Alec Lindsay left the chapel with the feeling that he
had been guilty of a misdemeanour--he had been playing at worship. The
unexpressed idea in his mind (a result of his Presbyterian training)
was that collects, and chants, and ceremonial observances in general,
were too interesting, too pleasing to the natural man, to be acceptable
to the Almighty. But by degrees this feeling wore off; and when he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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