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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Way of All Flesh"


Then Christina said: "My dear, do you know, I really think" (Christina
always "really" thought) "that the people like the chanting very much,
and that it will be a means of bringing many to church who have stayed
away hitherto. I was talking about it to Mrs Goodhew and to old Miss
Wright only yesterday, and they _quite_ agreed with me, but they all said
that we ought to chant the 'Glory be to the Father' at the end of each of
the psalms instead of saying it."
Theobald looked black--he felt the waters of chanting rising higher and
higher upon him inch by inch; but he felt also, he knew not why, that he
had better yield than fight. So he ordered the "Glory be to the Father"
to be chanted in future, but he did not like it.
"Really, mamma dear," said Charlotte, when the battle was won, "you
should not call it the 'Glory be to the Father' you should say 'Gloria.'"
"Of course, my dear," said Christina, and she said "Gloria" for ever
after. Then she thought what a wonderfully clever girl Charlotte was,
and how she ought to marry no one lower than a bishop. By-and-by when
Theobald went away for an unusually long holiday one summer, he could
find no one but a rather high-church clergyman to take his duty.


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