In one of the upper rooms his eyes were attracted by an old chamber
organ, which had once been lent for use in the church. He mentioned his
recollection of the same, which led her to say, 'That reminds me of
something. There is to be a confirmation in our parish in the spring,
and you once told me that you had never been confirmed. What shocking
neglect! Why was it?' 'I hardly know. The confusion resulting from my father's death caused it
to be forgotten, I suppose.' 'Now, dear Swithin, you will do this to please me,--be confirmed on the
present occasion?' 'Since I have done without the virtue of it so long, might I not do
without it altogether?' 'No, no!' she said earnestly. 'I do wish it, indeed. I am made unhappy
when I think you don't care about such serious matters. Without the
Church to cling to, what have we?' 'Each other. But seriously, I should be inverting the established order of spiritual things; people ought to be confirmed before they are
married.' 'That's really of minor consequence. Now, don't think slightingly of
what so many good men have laid down as necessary to be done. And, dear
Swithin, I somehow feel that a certain levity which has perhaps shown
itself in our treatment of the sacrament of marriage--by making a
clandestine adventure of what is, after all, a solemn rite--would be well
atoned for by a due seriousness in other points of religious observance.
This opportunity should therefore not be passed over. I thought of it
all last night; and you are a parson's son, remember, and he would have
insisted on it if he had been alive. In short, Swithin, do be a good
boy, and observe the Church's ordinances.' Lady Constantine, by virtue of her temperament, was necessarily either lover or _devote_, and she vibrated so gracefully between these two
conditions that nobody who had known the circumstances could have
condemned her inconsistencies. To be led into difficulties by those
mastering emotions of hers, to aim at escape by turning round and seizing
the apparatus of religion--which could only rightly be worked by the very
emotions already bestowed elsewhere--it was, after all, but Nature's well-
meaning attempt to preserve the honour of her daughter's conscience in
the trying quandary to which the conditions of sex had given rise. As
Viviette could not be confirmed herself, and as Communion Sunday was a
long way off, she urged Swithin thus.
'And the new bishop is such a good man,' she continued. 'I used to have
a slight acquaintance with him when he was a parish priest.' 'Very well, dearest. To please you I'll be confirmed. My grandmother, too, will be delighted, no doubt.' They continued their ramble: Lady Constantine first advancing into rooms with the candle, to assure herself that all was empty, and then calling him forward in a whisper. The stillness was broken only by these
whispers, or by the occasional crack of a floor-board beneath their
tread. At last they sat down, and, shading the candle with a screen, she
showed him the faded contents of this and that drawer or cabinet, or the
wardrobe of some member of the family who had died young early in the
century, when muslin reigned supreme, when waists were close to arm-pits,
and muffs as large as smugglers' tubs. These researches among
habilimental hulls and husks, whose human kernels had long ago perished,
went on for about half an hour; when the companions were startled by a
loud ringing at the front-door bell.