Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

Down the Oise : CJmrch Interior's. 203
I found my way to the church ; for there is
ahvays something to see about a church, whether
living worshippers or dead men's tombs ; you
find there the deadliest earnest, and the hol-
lowest deceit ; and even where it is not a piece
of history, it will be certain to leak out some
contemporary gossip. It was scarcely so cold
in the church as it was without, but it looked
colder. The white nave was positively arctic to
the eye ; and the tawdriness of a continental
altar looked more forlorn than usual in the
solitude and the bleak air. Two priests sat in
the chancel, reading and waiting penitents ; and
out in the nave, one very old woman was
engaged in her devotions. It was a wonder
how she was able to pass her beads when
healthy }^oung people were breathing in their
palms and slapping their chest ; but though
this concerned me, I was yet more dispirited by
the nature of her exercises. She went from