原文 (英语)

CHAPTER XXIV THE VESTRY MEETS At nine o'clock that evening Hodder stood alone in the arched vestry room, and the sight of the heavy Gothic chairs ranged about the long table brought up memories of comfortable, genial meetings prolonged by chat and banter…. The noise of feet, of subdued voices beside the coat room in the corridor, aroused him. All of the vestry would seem to have arrived at once. He regarded them with a detached curiosity as they entered, reading them with a new in