On Sunday it was Lewisham's duty to accompany the boarders twice to church. The boys sat in the gallery above the choirs1 facing the organ loft2 and at right angles to the general congregation. It was a prominent position, and made him feel painfully conspicuous3, except in moods of exceptional vanity, when he used to imagine that all these people were thinking how his forehead and his certificates accorded. He thought a lot in those days of his certificates and forehead, but little of his honest, healthy face beneath it. (To tell the truth there was nothing very wonderful about his forehead.) He rarely looked down the church, as he fancied to do so would be to meet the collective eye of the congregation regarding him. So that in the morning he was not able to see that the Frobishers' pew was empty until the litany.
But in the evening, on the way to church, the Frobishers and their guest crossed the market-square as his string of boys marched along the west side. And the guest was arrayed in a gay new dress, as if it was already Easter, and her face set in its dark hair came with a strange effect of mingled5 freshness and familiarity. She looked at him calmly! He felt very awkward, and was for cutting his new acquaintance. Then hesitated, and raised his hat with a jerk as if to Mrs. Frobisher. Neither lady acknowledged his salute6, which may possibly have been a little unexpected. Then young Siddons dropped his hymn7-book; stooped to pick it up, and Lewisham almost fell over him.... He entered church in a mood of black despair.
But consolation8 of a sort came soon enough. As _she_ took her seat she distinctly glanced up at the gallery, and afterwards as he knelt to pray he peeped between his fingers and saw her looking up again. She was certainly not laughing at him.
In those days much of Lewisham's mind was still an unknown land to him. He believed among other things that he was always the same consistent intelligent human being, whereas under certain stimuli9 he became no longer reasonable and disciplined but a purely10 imaginative and emotional person. Music, for instance, carried him away, and particularly the effect of many voices in unison11 whirled him off from almost any state of mind to a fine massive emotionality. And the evening service at Whortley church--at the evening service surplices were worn--the chanting and singing, the vague brilliance12 of the numerous candle flames, the multitudinous unanimity13 of the congregation down there, kneeling, rising, thunderously responding, invariably inebriated14 him. Inspired him, if you will, and turned the prose of his life into poetry. And Chance, coming to the aid of Dame15 Nature, dropped just the apt suggestion into his now highly responsive ear.
The second hymn was a simple and popular one, dealing16 with the theme of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and having each verse ending with the word "Love." Conceive it, long drawn17 out and disarticulate,--
"Faith will van ... ish in ... to sight,
Hope be emp ... tied in deli ... ight,
Love in Heaven will shine more bri ... ight,
There ... fore4 give us Love."
At the third repetition of the refrain, Lewisham looked down across the chancel and met her eyes for a brief instant....
He stopped singing abruptly18. Then the consciousness of the serried19 ranks of faces below there came with almost overwhelming force upon him, and he dared not look at her again. He felt the blood rushing to his face.
Love! The greatest of these. The greatest of all things. Better than fame. Better than knowledge. So came the great discovery like a flood across his mind, pouring over it with the cadence20 of the hymn and sending a tide of pink in sympathy across his forehead. The rest of the service was phantasmagorial background to that great reality--a phantasmagorial background a little inclined to stare. He, Mr. Lewisham, was in Love.
"A ... men." He was so preoccupied21 that he found the whole congregation subsiding22 into their seats, and himself still standing23, rapt. He sat down spasmodically, with an impact that seemed to him to re-echo through the church.
As they came out of the porch into the thickening night, he seemed to see her everywhere. He fancied she had gone on in front, and he hurried up the boys in the hope of overtaking her. They pushed through the throng24 of dim people going homeward. Should he raise his hat to her again?... But it was Susie Hopbrow in a light-coloured dress--a raven25 in dove's plumage. He felt a curious mixture of relief and disappointment. He would see her no more that night.
He hurried from the school to his lodging26. He wanted very urgently to be alone. He went upstairs to his little room and sat before the upturned box on which his Butler's Analogy was spread open. He did not go to the formality of lighting27 the candle. He leant back and gazed blissfully at the solitary28 planet that hung over the vicarage garden.
He took out of his pocket a crumpled29 sheet of paper, smoothed and carefully refolded, covered with a writing not unlike that of Frobisher ii., and after some maidenly30 hesitation31 pressed this treasure to his lips. The Schema and the time-table hung in the darkness like the mere32 ghosts of themselves.
Mrs. Munday called him thrice to his supper.
He went out immediately after it was eaten and wandered under the stars until he came over the hill behind the town again, and clambered up the back to the stile in sight of the Frobishers' house. He selected the only lit window as hers. Behind the blind, Mrs. Frobisher, thirty-eight, was busy with her curl-papers--she used papers because they were better for the hair--and discussing certain neighbours in a fragmentary way with Mr. Frobisher, who was in bed. Presently she moved the candle to examine a faint discolouration of her complexion33 that rendered her uneasy.
Outside, Mr. Lewisham (eighteen) stood watching the orange oblong for the best part of half an hour, until it vanished and left the house black and blank. Then he sighed deeply and returned home in a very glorious mood indeed.
He awoke the next morning feeling extremely serious, but not clearly remembering the overnight occurrences. His eye fell on his clock. The time was six and he had not heard the alarum; as a matter of fact the alarum had not been wound up. He jumped out of bed at once and alighted upon his best trousers amorphously34 dropped on the floor instead of methodically cast over a chair. As he soaped his head he tried, according to his rules of revision, to remember the overnight reading. He could not for the life of him. The truth came to him as he was getting into his shirt. His head, struggling in its recesses35, became motionless, the handless cuffs36 ceased to dangle37 for a minute....
Then his head came through slowly with a surprised expression upon his face. He remembered. He remembered the thing as a bald discovery, and without a touch of emotion. With all the achromatic clearness, the unromantic colourlessness of the early morning....
Yes. He had it now quite distinctly. There had been no overnight reading. He was in Love.
The proposition jarred with some vague thing in his mind. He stood staring for a space, and then began looking about absent-mindedly for his collar-stud. He paused in front of his Schema, regarding it.
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1
choirs
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| n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 )；唱诗队；公开表演的合唱团；（教堂）唱经楼 | |
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loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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stimuli
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| n.刺激（物） | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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brilliance
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| n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智 | |
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unanimity
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| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
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inebriated
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| adj.酒醉的 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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22
subsiding
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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29
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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maidenly
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| adj. 像处女的, 谨慎的, 稳静的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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amorphously
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| adj.无组织的；模糊的；无固定形状的；非结晶的 | |
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35
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37
dangle
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| v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂 | |
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