The Maidens of Walsingham - стр. 10
– Leave her alone, Dad. God sees her heart and knows what is going on in it," said Catherine to her father: she had guessed her sister's plan to avoid vespers, but she kept silent, thinking it would do Christine good to be alone and think over her "wicked" behaviour. – Just please, Chris, wash the plates. I don't have time.
Christine's response was an exasperated sigh.
A quarter of an hour later, the pastor, Catherine and Cassie put on their best dresses and hurried into the church.
Christine wiped her poor bed with tears for a long time, but when she had calmed down, she took the clay plates and, going out into the yard, began to scrub them with a pig bristle brush. Suddenly, once again, Christine felt a rush of regret for her fading life, but she could not contain her anger and grabbed one of the plates and threw it to the ground, breaking it into several large pieces. Christine returned to the house, put the clean plates on the shelf, lay down on her mattress again, and wept bitterly. When the Glowfords returned from vespers, the girl was already asleep, weary with worries and black thoughts, but Catherine woke her to listen to the passage of Scripture that Pastor Glowford read every evening.
– There's one plate missing," Catherine said, glancing at the shelf.
– It fell out of my hands and broke," Christine told her sullenly.
Kate sat down beside her on the muff, and Cassie, full of joy at her homecoming, sat down beside her, and the family began to listen to the lines of Scripture that Pastor Glowford read with feeling. The pastor's voice was hushed, then filled with power, then with gentleness, then with dire warnings of the futility of existence and the terrible consequences of sin. After reading another passage, the pastor put the book aside. The family held hands and prayed, but the hearts of two of the four were indifferent to prayer: Christine's heart was wounded by dark thoughts and feelings, and Cassie's heart was not at all attentive to prayer, and the girl was more occupied with thoughts of the morrow, for she and the local boys had conspired to rob the apple-tree of a grumpy old neighbour. As she prayed, Cassie watched with delight as a spider crawled up the wall and disappeared into one of the crevices.
– Tomorrow, after morning, I will go to see our new landlord," the parson said after the prayer was over.
– To the Count of Draymore? – Christine exclaimed, stunned by the news. – Why?
– To have a conversation with him about our church. I approached him after the service today, but he was in a hurry, but he invited me to an audience at his estate.
– But is it not in his power to come himself? – Christine hoped to see the lord again, and vaguely felt the need to make him admire her beauty even more.
– The Count of Draymore is a highborn person. I think we shall never again have the honour of seeing him at Walsingham," the parson answered her with a slight chuckle.
Christine's heart sank: she was suddenly seized with an irresistible desire to see the Count, but her father's words disappointed her.
– I hope that during my audience you will not indulge in laziness, but will tidy up the church, – the pastor announced to his daughters.
– When will you be back? Will you be back in time for dinner? – worried Catherine: she jealously watched that her father did not starve.