But it was Gabrielle he worshipped in them, Gabrielle to whomhe offered up his prayers, his supplications. All that elementin religion which gives to love the fascination of forbiddenfruit appealed powerfully to his imagination. Unbeliever thoughhe was, he loved the Magdalen's God and savoured the creed thathas bestowed on lovers one amorous bliss the more--the blissof losing their immortal souls.
Chapter 24
Sunday was a day of cheerful indolence, devoted to attendingthe services in the Chapel, which was filled with the scent ofincense all day long. At Vespers, while the clear, boyish voicesintoned the long-drawn canticles, Jean would be gazing at somewoman's face half seen in the dusk of the galleries where thepupils' mothers and sisters knelt during the office, their haughtyair contradicting the humble attitude. At the sound of the _Avemaris stella_, the lowly bookbinder's son would lift his eyesto these ladies of high degree, the plainest of whom feels herselfa jewel of price and cherishes a natural and unaffected pride ofbirth. The chants and incense, the flowers and sacred images,whatever troubles the imagination and stimulates to prayer, allthese things united to enervate his spirit and deliver him atrembling victim to the glamour of these patrician dames.