and the harvest melody that shall endure for ever."






Chapter 6

The reading went on, not of course "for ever," like that harvest melody
he spoke of, but for a considerable time. The words, I concluded, were
for the initiated, and not for me, and after a while I gave up trying to
make out what it was all about. Those last expressions I have quoted
about the "august Mother of the house" were unintelligible, and appeared
to me meaningless. I had already come to the conclusion that however
many of the ladies of the establishment might have experienced the
pleasures and pains of maternity, there was really no mother of the
house in the sense that there was a father of the house: that is to say,
one possessing authority over the others and calling them all her
children indiscriminately. Yet this mysterious non-existent mother of
the house was continually being spoken of, as I found now and afterwards
when I listened to the talk around me. After thinking the matter over, I
came to the conclusion that "mother of the house" was merely a
convenient fiction, and simply stood for the general sense of the
women-folk, or something of the sort. It was perhaps stupid of me, but
the story of Mistrelde, who died young, leaving only eight children, I
had regarded as a mere legend or fable of antiquity.

To return to the reading. Just as I had been absorbed before in that
beautiful book without being able to read it, so now I listened to that