She
was a limpet, with the sensitive side of her stuck to a rock, for ever
dead to the rush of fresh and beautiful things past her. The face
of this single worshipper became printed on Rachel's mind with an
impression of keen horror, and she had it suddenly revealed to her what
Helen meant and St. John meant when they proclaimed their hatred of
Christianity. With the violence that now marked her feelings, she
rejected all that she had implicitly believed.
Meanwhile Mr. Bax was half-way through the second lesson. She looked at
him. He was a man of the world with supple lips and an agreeable manner,
he was indeed a man of much kindliness and simplicity, though by no
means clever, but she was not in the mood to give any one credit for
such qualities, and examined him as though he were an epitome of all the
vices of his service.
Right at the back of the chapel Mrs. Flushing, Hirst, and Hewet sat in
a row in a very different frame of mind. Hewet was staring at the roof
with his legs stuck out in front of him, for as he had never tried to
make the service fit any feeling or idea of his, he was able to enjoy
the beauty of the language without hindrance. His mind was occupied
first with accidental things, such as the women's hair in front of
him, the light on the faces, then with the words which seemed to him
magnificent, and then more vaguely with the characters of the other
worshippers.
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