Domestic fiction; Family -- England -- Midlands -- Fiction; Midlands (England) -- Fiction
The colour came streaming from the painted window above her. It lit on
the dark wood of the pew, on the stone, worn aisle, on the pillar
behind her cousin, and on her cousin’s hands, as they lay on his knees.
She sat amid illumination, illumination and luminous shadow all around
her, her soul very bright. She sat, without knowing it, conscious of
the hands and motionless knees of her cousin. Something strange had
entered into her world, something entirely strange and unlike what she
knew.
She was curiously elated. She sat in a glowing world of unreality, very
delightful. A brooding light, like laughter, was in her eyes. She was
aware of a strange influence entering in to her, which she enjoyed. It
was a dark enrichening influence she had not known before. She did not
think of her cousin. But she was startled when his hands moved.
She wished he would not say the responses so plainly. It diverted her
from her vague enjoyment. Why would he obtrude, and draw notice to
himself? It was bad taste. But she went on all right till the hymn
came. He stood up beside her to sing, and that pleased her. Then
suddenly, at the very first word, his voice came strong and
over-riding, filling the church. He was singing the tenor. Her soul
opened in amazement. His voice filled the church! It rang out like a
trumpet, and rang out again. She started to giggle over her hymn-book.
But he went on, perfectly steady. Up and down rang his voice, going its
own way. She was helplessly shocked into laughter. Between moments of
dead silence in herself she shook with laughter. On came the laughter,
seized her and shook her till the tears were in her eyes. She was
amazed, and rather enjoyed it. And still the hymn rolled on, and still
she laughed. She bent over her hymn-book crimson with confusion, but
still her sides shook with laughter. She pretended to cough, she
pretended to have a crumb in her throat. Fred was gazing up at her with
clear blue eyes. She was recovering herself. And then a slur in the
strong, blind voice at her side brought it all on again, in a gust of
mad laughter.
She bent down to prayer in cold reproof of herself. And yet, as she
knelt, little eddies of giggling went over her. The very sight of his
knees on the praying cushion sent the little shock of laughter over
her.
She gathered herself together and sat with prim, pure face, white and
pink and cold as a Christmas rose, her hands in her silk gloves folded
on her lap, her dark eyes all vague, abstracted in a sort of dream,
oblivious of everything.
The sermon rolled on vaguely, in a tide of pregnant peace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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