United States or Bhutan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There were still some masterly bits, the choirboy holding the cross, the group of daughters of the Virgin carrying the bier, whose white dresses and ruddy flesh furnished a pretty contrast with the black Sunday toggery of the rustic mourners, among all the green stuff; only the priest in his alb, the girl carrying the Virgin's banner, the family following the body, were drily handled; the whole picture, in fact, was displeasing in its very science and the obstinate stiffness of its treatment.
But he reconciled himself to it, and on the whole enjoyed his first day at Eckleton. On the second there occurred an Episode. Thomas had inherited from his mother a pleasant, rather meek cast of countenance. He had pink cheeks and golden hair almost indecently golden in one who was not a choirboy.
The priest in his surplice and the choirboy carrying the holy water receiver, who had both alighted from the mourning coach, walked on ahead. It was a large flat cemetery, still in its youth, laid out by rule and line in the suburban waste land, and divided into squares by broad symmetrical paths.
'Requiescat in pace, said the priest. 'Amen, replied the choirboy. But the words were again lost amid the lashing, deafening detonation, which was prolonged with the continuous violence of a fusillade. Bongrand, quite exasperated, turned towards the engine. It became silent, fortunately, and every one felt relieved.
A few friends of Madame Granson, women dressed in black, and veiled, were present; and half a dozen other young men who had been somewhat intimate with this lost genius. Four torches flickered on the coffin, which was covered with crape. The rector, assisted by one discreet choirboy, said the mortuary mass.
He's the worst of the lot; I wouldn't be surprised if " Bish looked at him like a bishop who has just been contradicted on a point of doctrine by a choirboy. "Be quiet!" he ordered.
The procession, preceded by the mourning coach in which the priest and the choirboy were seated, now descended the other side of the height, along winding streets as precipitous as mountain paths. The horses of the hearse slipped over the slimy pavement; one could hear the wheels jolting noisily.
All the others were going off, the surplices of the priest and the choirboy disappeared between the green trees, while the straggling neighbours loitered reading the inscriptions on the surrounding tombs. Then Sandoz, making up his mind to leave the grave, which was now half filled, resumed: 'We alone shall have known him. There is nothing left of him, not even a name!
Most beautiful tenor air ever written, Richie said: Sonnambula. He heard Joe Maas sing that one night. Ah, what M'Guckin! Yes. In his way. Choirboy style. Maas was the boy. Massboy. A lyrical tenor if you like. Never forget it. Never. Tenderly Bloom over liverless bacon saw the tightened features strain. Backache he. Bright's bright eye. Next item on the programme. Paying the piper.
A few friends of Madame Granson, women dressed in black, and veiled, were present; and half a dozen other young men who had been somewhat intimate with this lost genius. Four torches flickered on the coffin, which was covered with crape. The rector, assisted by one discreet choirboy, said the mortuary mass.
Word Of The Day