Domestic fiction; Family -- England -- Midlands -- Fiction; Midlands (England) -- Fiction
There was life outside the Church. There was much that the Church did
not include. He thought of God, and of the whole blue rotunda of the
day. That was something great and free. He thought of the ruins of the
Grecian worship, and it seemed, a temple was never perfectly a temple,
till it was ruined and mixed up with the winds and the sky and the
herbs.
Still he loved the Church. As a symbol, he loved it. He tended it for
what it tried to represent, rather than for that which it did
represent. Still he loved it. The little church across his garden-wall
drew him, he gave it loving attention. But he went to take charge of
it, to preserve it. It was as an old, sacred thing to him. He looked
after the stone and woodwork, mending the organ and restoring a piece
of broken carving, repairing the church furniture. Later, he became
choir-master also.
His life was shifting its centre, becoming more superficial. He had
failed to become really articulate, failed to find real expression. He
had to continue in the old form. But in spirit, he was uncreated.
Anna was absorbed in the child now, she left her husband to take his
own way. She was willing now to postpone all adventure into unknown
realities. She had the child, her palpable and immediate future was the
child. If her soul had found no utterance, her womb had.
The church that neighboured with his house became very intimate and
dear to him. He cherished it, he had it entirely in his charge. If he
could find no new activity, he would be happy cherishing the old, dear
form of worship. He knew this little, whitewashed church. In its
shadowy atmosphere he sank back into being. He liked to sink himself in
its hush as a stone sinks into water.
He went across his garden, mounted the wall by the little steps, and
entered the hush and peace of the church. As the heavy door clanged to
behind him, his feet re-echoed in the aisle, his heart re-echoed with a
little passion of tenderness and mystic peace. He was also slightly
ashamed, like a man who has failed, who lapses back for his fulfilment.
He loved to light the candles at the organ, and sitting there alone in
the little glow, practice the hymns and chants for the service. The
whitewashed arches retreated into darkness, the sound of the organ and
the organ-pedals died away upon the unalterable stillness of the
church, there were faint, ghostly noises in the tower, and then the
music swelled out again, loudly, triumphantly.
He ceased to fret about his life. He relaxed his will, and let
everything go. What was between him and his wife was a great thing, if
it was not everything. She had conquered, really. Let him wait, and
abide, wait and abide. She and the baby and himself, they were one. The
organ rang out his protestation. His soul lay in the darkness as he
pressed the keys of the organ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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