The Statement of Stella Maberly by F. Anstey

Author:F. Anstey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2017-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

VIII

The day fixed for the wedding, which was to be early in September, came nearer and nearer; presents poured in; arrangements for feasting Hugh Dallas’s tenantry and the Whinstone school children and poor were discussed and decided on, and though I could not help being aware of all this, I remained passive. Somehow I could not persuade myself that this iniquitous union would really take place.

One Sunday morning, however, the fancy seized me that I would go to church once more and try whether I might gain some little comfort and strength to endure my daily and hourly temptations and the torture of my nightly ordeal, and, for a wonder, I had been allowed to go, though not without Mrs Maitland as a keeper and spy over me.

For a time the familiar rhythm and wording of the noble liturgy, the rise and fall of the intoning, and the hearty ring of the responses, exercised a soothing effect upon me; I felt safe and comparatively at peace, content to trust the future in the hands of the God whom we were imploring to have mercy upon us, and who seemed so near and so ready to listen to our prayers just then.

And then suddenly I heard that which roused my drugged conscience and convinced me that action and not weak, cowardly resignation was required of me. The rector was publishing the banns of marriage between Hugh Dallas and Evelyn Heseltine for the third time, and as he uttered the solemn adjuration to any of us who knew cause or just impediment why those two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony to declare it, I realised that this appeal was addressed to me alone, and that if I neglected it now, I should be answerable to Heaven for my silence.

So, the moment the rector’s voice ceased, I rose. ‘I forbid the banns,’ I cried. ‘I know of a cause which makes this marriage unholy in the sight of God, and I am ready to declare it.’

The rector’s face assumed a look of consternation that was almost ludicrous; he had only just been appointed to the living, and probably my face and identity were as yet unknown to him. For the moment he seemed at a loss what to say, and there was an audible stir and murmur among the congregation.

At length he said, ‘I cannot hear you now. Come to me in the vestry after service.’

Mrs Maitland, scarlet with flurry and distress, was plucking at my cape, and I sat down quietly, and the service proceeded as usual. But I heard nothing of it, nor of the sermon that followed, for my mind was occupied with the disclosures I was pledged to make, and the effect they would produce. All too soon for me the sermon came to an end, and the congregation was dismissed; there was the scroop12 of the benches on the pavement at the back, the breath of cooler air as the doors were opened, the clatter of the choir-boys’ booths heard above the tones of the organ.

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