THE MORNING WATCH
207
the Chapel. Richard heard his careful sliding-shut of the window;
the flames stood straight; Claude returned, and again began his beads
at the beginning. Soul of Christ sanctify me, Richard began aimlessly;
the sacristy door opened and there was Lee Allen.
Richard shut his eyes. 0 God forgive me that I can't do it right, he
prayed. 0 God help me do it better now. Make me to love 'Thee and to
know Thy suffering this day. For Jesus' sake Amen. He crossed
him–
self meticulously and got to his feet; he was dizzy and for a ,moment his
knees hurt very badly. He stepped out of the desk, genuflected, and
turned, and all of a sudden he knew he would have to go :out at least
for a minute or two, he was much too tired to stay. When he turned
to genuflect again at the door, Lee was lighting the second of the tall
new candles.
The darkness was cool and stale. From where (he stood beside the
door of the Lady Chapel, looking back across the nave, he saw the
spaced badges of blacker darkness where the Stations of the Cross
hung veiled. Tall at his right shoulder, a Madonna stood, a blind black
monolith. He walked silently toward the middle of the transept, and
now he could see the white stops and keys of the organ. He stood at the
center, facing the stripped Altar; sure that it ought not to be done, but in
an obstinate and loyal reverence, he put down one knee and then both
knees before the desolate shrine: until His coming again.
He bent his head deep toward the floor and heard his voice
whisper slowly and fearfully within him the words 'which, he suspected,
only a priest may utter without blasphemy: For in the night in which
He was betrayed:
His skin crawled.
This is the night in which He is betrayed.
H e felt the floor, bitter against his knees, and whispered aloud,
"This is the night in which He is betrayed"; and with the whispering
it no longer was, and he whispered within himself, He took bread, and
brake it, and gave it unto His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is my
Body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.
He saw, and :Was himself, grown and vested, genuflecting, raising
the consecrated Host, again genuflecting, while a bowed kneeling boy,
who was also himself, shook the three bells.
Likewise after supper He took the cup, and when He had given
thanks ;he blessed it, and gave it unto his disciples, saying, Drink ye all
of this, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for
you and !for many for the remission of sins. Do this as oft as ye shall
drink it, in remembrance of me.
