The Testing of Diana Mallory eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 580 pages of information about The Testing of Diana Mallory.

The Testing of Diana Mallory eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 580 pages of information about The Testing of Diana Mallory.
in the southern aisle; the loaves standing near the porch for distribution after service, in accordance with an old benefaction; the fragments of fifteenth-century glass in the windows; the school-children to her left; the singing, the prayers, the sermon—­found her in a welcoming, a child-like mood.  She knelt, she sang, she listened, like one undergoing initiation, with a tender aspiring light in her eyes, and an eager mobility of expression.

Mrs. Colwood was more critical.  The clergyman who preached the sermon did not, in fact, please her at all.  He was a thin High Churchman, with an oblong face and head, narrow shoulders, and a spare frame.  He wore spectacles, and his voice was disagreeably pitched.  His sermon was nevertheless remarkable.  A bare yet penetrating style; a stern view of life; the voice of a prophet, and apparently the views of a socialist—­all these he possessed.  None of them, it might have been thought, were especially fitted to capture either the female or the rustic mind.  Yet it could not be denied that the congregation was unusually good for a village church; and by the involuntary sigh which Miss Mallory gave as the sermon ended, Mrs. Colwood was able to gauge the profound and docile attention with which one at least had listened to it.

After church there was much lingering in the churchyard for the exchange of Christmas greetings.  Mrs. Colwood found herself introduced to the Vicar, Mr. Lavery; to a couple of maiden ladies of the name of Bertram, who seemed to have a good deal to do with the Vicar, and with the Church affairs of the village; and to an elderly couple, Dr. and Mrs. Roughsedge, white-haired, courteous, and kind, who were accompanied by a soldier son, in whom it was evident they took a boundless pride.  The young man, of a handsome and open countenance, looked at Miss Mallory as much as good manners allowed.  She, however, had eyes for no one but the Vicar, with whom she started, tete-a-tete, in the direction of the Vicarage.

Mrs. Colwood followed, shyly making acquaintance with the Roughsedges, and the elder Miss Bertram.  That lady was tall, fair, and faded; she had a sharp, handsome nose, and a high forehead; and her eyes, which hardly ever met those of the person with whom she talked, gave the impression of a soul preoccupied, with few or none of the ordinary human curiosities.

Mrs. Roughsedge, on the other hand, was most human, motherly, and inquisitive.  She wore two curls on either side of her face held by small combs, a large bonnet, and an ample cloak.  It was clear that whatever adoration she could spare from her husband was lavished on her son.  But there was still enough good temper and good will left to overflow upon the rest of mankind.  She perceived in a moment that Mrs. Colwood was the new “companion” to the heiress, that she was a widow, and sad—­in spite of her cheerfulness.

“Now I hope Miss Mallory is going to like us!” she said, with a touch of confidential good-humor, as she drew Mrs. Colwood a little behind the others.  “We are all in love with her already.  But she must be patient with us.  We’re very humdrum folk!”

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Testing of Diana Mallory from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.