The great central door of St. Catherine's stood open, so that the drift
blew in and piled in windrows on the cold floor of the vestibule. The
tall front of the church went up into the darkness, pointing to no
visible stars; but over the doors two gas jets flickered across the big
sign they use for fairs at the parochial school. “Come in here.” The
vestibule was dark, barring another gas jet over a side door, with
another sign, “Come in here,” and within the great church was dark as
well, except for a cluster over the Christ figure. That was all; but
Father Harra thought it a neat symbol, looking toward those who go from
meagre light to light through the darkness.
Little noises were in the church all night far up in the pitch darkness
of rafter and buttress, as if people were whispering and crying softly
to one another. Now and again, too, the swing door would open and remain
so for a moment, suspicious, hesitating. But what they did, or who they
were that opened it, could hardly be told in the dusk and distance.
Dennis went to sleep in a chair by the chancel rail, and did not care
what they did or who they were, granted they kept away from the chancel.
How the wind blew!--and the snow tapped impatiently at stained windows
with a multitude of little fingers. But if the noises among the rafters
were not merely echoes of the crying and calling wind without, if any
presences moved and whispered there, and looked down on flat floor and
straight lines of pews, they must have seen the Christ figure, with
welcoming hands, dominant by reason of the light about it; and, just on
the edge of the circle of light, shapeless things stretched on cushions
of pews, and motionless or stirring uneasily. Something now came dimly
up the aisle from the swing door, stopped at a pew, and hesitated.
“Git out!” growled a hoarse voice. “Dis my bunk.”
The intruder gave a nervous giggle. “Begawd!” muttered the hoarse voice.
“It's a lady!”
Another voice said something angrily. “Well,” said the first, “it ain't
behavin' nice to come into me boodwer.”
The owner of the giggle had slipped away and disappeared in a distant
pew. In another pew to the right of the aisle a smaller shadow whispered
to another:
“Jimmy, that's a statoo up there.”
“Who?”
“That. I bet 'e's a king.”
“Aw, no 'e ain't. Kings has crowns an' wallups folks.”
“Gorry! What for?”
“I don' know.”
The other sighed plaintively. “I thought 'e might be a king.”
The rest were mainly silent. Some one had a bad cough. Once a sleeper
rolled from the seat and fell heavily to the floor. There was an oath
or two, a smothered laugh, and the distant owner of the giggle used it
nervously. The last was an uncanny sound. The wakened sleeper objected
to it. He said he would “like to get hold of her,” and then lay down
cautiously on his cushion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account