Free Original Sin by P. D. James Page A

you please. He wants 'Fhrough the Night of Doubt and Sorrow" at next Sunday's Evensong, but we're supposed to sing "person takes the Hand of Person, Marching Fearless through the Night". I soon put a stop to that, supported by Mr Higginson, thankfully. I can forgive that man the price of his bacon and the way he lets that mangy old cat of his sit in the window on the corn flakes when he acts with sense at the PCC which, to do him justice, he usually does. Miss Matlock suggested "Sister Takes the Hand of Sister".'
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    %qhat's wrong with that?'
    'Nothing, except it's not what the author wrote. Had a good day?' 'No. It hasn't been a good day.'
    But Mrs Willoughby's mind was still with the PCC. 'I'm not particularly fond of that hymn. Never have been. I can't think why Miss Matlock's so keen on it. Nostalgia, I suppose. Childhood memories. Not much doubt and sorrow about the congregation at St Margaret's. Too well fed. Too well-off. Still, there will be if the vicar tries to cut out the eight o'clock 2662 Holy Communion on Sundays.
    There'll be plenty of doubt and sorrow in the parish then.'
    'Has he suggested it?'
    'Not in so many words, but he's keeping an eye on the size of the congregation. You and I must keep up our attendance and I'll see if I can stir up some of the villagers. All this trendiness is Susan, of course. The man would be perfectly amenable if he weren't egged on by his wife. She's talking of going off to be trained for the diaconate. Next thing they'll be ordaining her priest. They'd both do better in a large inner-city parish. They could have their banjos and guitars and I dare say the people would quite like it. What was your journey like?'
    'Not bad. Better tonight than this morning. We were ten minutes late at Charing Cross, a bad beginning to a bad day. It was Sonia Clements's funeral. Mr Gerard didn't go. Too busy, so he said. I suppose she wasn't important enough. Naturally that meant I felt I had to stay.'
    Joan said: 'Well that was no hardship. Cremations are always depressing. You can get some satisfaction out of a well-conducted funeral, but not out of a cremation. Which reminds me that the vicar actually proposed using the Alternative Service Book when he buries old Merryweather next Tuesday. I soon put a stop to that. Mr Merryweather was eighty-nine and you know how he hated change. He wouldn't think he'd had a proper Christian burial without the 2662 book.'
    When on the previous Tuesday Blackie had returned home with the news of Sonia Clements's suicide, Joan had taken it with remarkable composure. Blackie told herself that she oughtn't to be surprised. Her cousin frequently confounded her by an unexpected response to news and events. Small domestic inconveniences would provoke outrage, a major tragedy was taken with stoic calm. And this tragedy/after all, couldn't be expected to touch
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    her. She had never known, not even met, Sonia Clements.
    Breaking the news, Blackie had said: 'I haven't gossiped with the junior staff, of course, but I gather that the general feeling in the office is that she killed herself because Mr Gerard sacked her. I don't suppose he did it tactfully either. Apparently she left a note but it didn't mention losing her job. People take the view, though, that she'd still be here if it wasn't for Mr Gerard.'
    Joan's response had been robust. 'But that's ridiculous. Grown women don't kill themselves because they've been sacked. If losing your job was a reason for suicide we'd be having to dig mass graves. It was very inconsiderate of her, very thoughtless. And if she had to kill herself she should have done it somewhere else. After all, it might have been you who'd gone to the little archives room and found her. That wouldn't have been at all pleasant.'
    Blackie had said: 'It wasn't very pleasant for Mandy Price, the new temp, but I must say she took it very coolly. Some young girls would have had hysterics.'
    'No point in getting hysterics over a dead body. Dead bodies