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Walpole, Hugh, Sir, 1884-1941

"The Captives"

Here she had expected she did not know
what. Always from those very early days when she had first heard
about her aunts she had had visions of a strange illuminated place
into which God, "riding on a chariot clothed in flames," would one
day come. Even after she had grown up she had still fancied that the
centre of her aunts' strange, fantastic religion must be a strange,
fantastic place. And yet now, as she looked around her, she was not,
to her own surprise, disappointed. She was even satisfied; the
"wonder" was not in the building. Well, then, it must be in
something "inside," something that she had yet to discover. The
chapel had the thrilling quality of a little plain deal box that
carries a jewel.
She examined then the people around her. Women were in a great
majority, a man scattered forlornly amongst them once and again. She
discovered at once the alert eyes of young Mr. Warlock. He was
seated in the side aisle with a thin, severe-looking woman beside
him. He stared straight in front of him, wriggling sometimes his
broad back as though he were a dog tied by a chain. Some one else
very quickly claimed Maggie's attention; this was a girl who, in the
seat behind Mr.


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