They were by no means early, and the girl was
disagreeably aware of a little rustle of eagerness and curiosity as
she took her seat, and was glad to have fairly gained the shelter of
the high-backed pew as she bent her head. But Miss Prince the senior
seemed calm; she said her prayer, settled herself as usual, putting
the footstool in its right place and finding the psalms and the
collect. She then laid the prayer-book on the cushion beside her and
folded her hands in her lap, before she turned discreetly to say
good-morning to Miss Fraley, and exchange greetings until the
clergyman made his appearance. Nan had taken the seat next the pew
door, and was looking about her with great interest, forgetting
herself and her aunt as she wondered that so dear and quaint a place
of worship should be still left in her iconoclastic native country.
She had seen nothing even in Boston like this, there were so many
antique splendors about the chancel, and many mural tablets on the
walls, where she read with sudden delight her own family name and the
list of virtues which had belonged to some of her ancestors. The dear
old place! there never had been and never could be any church like
it; it seemed to have been waiting all her life for her to come to say
her prayers where so many of her own people had brought their sins and
sorrows in the long years that were gone. She only wished that the
doctor were with her, and the same feeling that used to make her watch
for him in her childhood until he smiled back again filled all her
loving and grateful heart.
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