But the representations grew so much in horror as the sermon approached
its end, that, when at last it was over, and Annie drew one long breath
of exhaustion, hardly of relief, she became aware that the peppermint
lozenge which had been given her a quarter of an hour before, was lying
still undissolved in her mouth.
What had added considerably to the effect of the preacher's words, was
that, in the middle of the sermon, she had, all at once, caught sight
of the face of George Macwha diagonally opposite to her, his eyes
looking like ears with the intensity of his listening. Nor did the
rather comical episode of the snuffing of the candles in the least
interfere with the solemnity of the tragic whole. The gallery was
lighted by three _coron???_ of tallow candles, which, persisting in
growing long-nosed and dim-sighted, had, at varying periods, according
as the necessity revealed itself to a certain half-witted individual of
the congregation, to be _snodded_ laboriously. Without losing a word
that the preacher uttered, Annie watched the process intently. What
made it ludicrous was, that the man, having taken up his weapon with
the air of a pious executioner, and having tipped the chandelier
towards him, began, from the operation of some occult sympathy, to open
the snuffers and his own mouth simultaneously; and by the time the
black devouring jaws of the snuffers had reached their full stretch,
his own jaws had become something dragonlike and hideous to
behold--when both shut with a convulsive snap.
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