And to morning church Cameron
went as a rule, but to-day, owing to a dull ache in his head and a
general sense of languor pervading his limbs, he had chosen instead, as
likely to be more healing to his aching head and his languid limbs, the
genial sun, tempered with cool and lazy airs under the orchard trees.
And hence he lay watching the democrat down the lane driven off to
church by Perkins, with Mandy beside him in the front seat, the seat
of authority and of activity, and Mr. Haley alone in the back seat, the
seat of honour and of retirement. Mrs. Haley was too overborne by the
heat and rush of the busy week to adventure the heat and dust of the
road, and to sustain the somewhat strenuous discourse of the Reverend
Harper Freeman, to whose flock the Haleys belonged. This, however, was
not Mrs. Haley's invariable custom. In the cooler weather it was her
habit to drive on a Sunday morning to church, sitting in the back seat
beside her husband, with Tim and Mandy occupying the front seat beside
the hired man, but during the heat and hurry of the harvest time she
would take advantage of the quietness of the house and of the two or
three hours' respite from the burden of household duties to make up
arrears of sleep accumulated during the preceding week, salving her
conscience, for she had a conscience in the matter, with a promise that
she might go in the evening when it was cooler and when she was more
rested.
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