MERTON, SURREY. E. A. V.



ABBE MOURET'S TRANSGRESSION



BOOK I



I

As La Teuse entered the church she rested her broom and feather-brush
against the altar. She was late, as she had that day began her
half-yearly wash. Limping more than ever in her haste and hustling the
benches, she went down the church to ring the _Angelus_. The bare, worn
bell-rope dangled from the ceiling near the confessional, and ended in a
big knot greasy from handling. Again and again, with regular jumps, she
hung herself upon it; and then let her whole bulky figure go with it,
whirling in her petticoats, her cap awry, and her blood rushing to her
broad face.

Having set her cap straight with a little pat, she came back breathless
to give a hasty sweep before the altar. Every day the dust persistently
settled between the disjoined boards of the platform. Her broom rummaged
among the corners with an angry rumble. Then she lifted the altar cover
and was sorely vexed to find that the large upper cloth, already darned