VII 



FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES 

 IN FORT QU'APPELLE 



HILARIA vowed that as she was not remaining in the 

 country there was no need for her to pay calls or 

 go to church. 



It was not altogether surprising about church 

 because on the only occasion we had an opportunity 

 of being present at an Anglican service during our 

 summer on the prairie the clergyman, who took 

 morning service at his other parish twenty-three 

 miles west, and afternoon service at his third parish 

 ten miles west, had been an involuntary absentee ; 

 and in spite of the fact that the lay-reader did his 

 best with that portion of the liturgy where lay- 

 readers need not fear to tread, the service was a 

 little dull. In England we had the inestimable 

 privilege of living in the very near neighbourhood 

 of Westminster Abbey, and in new surroundings 

 one is inclined at first to screen the hallowed and 

 hallowing associations of home in a winding-sheet 

 of loyalty. But the exquisite shadows and sounds of 

 the Abbey have a way of finding channel through 

 the tenderest intentions, and in those early days 

 as one sat in the simple little church of Fort 

 Qu'Appelle, now and again the breath of the 

 holy beauty of Westminster seemed to live in nearest 



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