His self-confidence was
restored, for he to whom an idea is revealed becomes the idea, and is
no longer personal and consequently poor.
His room seemed too small for him; he shut his book and went to Great
Ormond Street. He found there Marshall, Mrs Caffyn, Clara and a
friend of Marshall's named Dennis.
'Where is your wife?' said Baruch to Marshall.
'Gone with Miss Madge to the Catholic chapel to hear a mass of
Mozart's.'
'Yes,' said Mrs Caffyn. 'I tell them they'll turn Papists if they do
not mind. They are always going to that place, and there's no
knowing, so I've hear'd, what them priests can do. They aren't like
our parsons. Catch that man at Great Oakhurst a-turnin' anybody.'
'I suppose,' said Baruch to Clara, 'it is the music takes your sister
there?'
'Mainly, I believe, but perhaps not entirely.'
'What other attraction can there be?'
'I am not in the least disposed to become a convert. Once for all,
Catholicism is incredible and that is sufficient, but there is much
in its ritual which suits me. There is no such intrusion of the
person of the minister as there is in the Church of England, and
still worse amongst dissenters. In the Catholic service the priest
is nothing; it is his office which is everything; he is a mere means
of communication. The mass, in so far as it proclaims that miracle
is not dead, is also very impressive to me.
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