This dignified thurifer
then made the circuit of the other rooms, plying his censer. From
the conscientious manner in which he fulfilled his task, I fear
that an Ecclesiastical Court might have found that this came under
the heading of "incense used ceremonially."
My father had one peculiarity; he never altered his manner of
living, whether the house was full of visitors, or he were alone
with my mother, after his children had married and left him. At
Baron's Court, when quite by themselves, they used the large
rooms, and had them all lighted up at night, exactly as though the
house was full of guests. There was to my mind something very
touching in seeing an aged couple, after more than fifty years of
married life together, still preserving the affectionate relations
of lovers with each other. They played their chess together
nightly in a room ninety-eight feet long, and delighted in still
singing together, in the quavering tones of old age, the simple
little Italian duets that they had sung in the far-off days of
their courtship. As his years increased, my father did not care to
venture much beyond the circle of his own family, though as
thirteen of his children had grown up, and he had seven married
daughters, the two elder of whom had each thirteen children of her
own, the number of his immediate descendants afforded him a fairly
wide field of selection.
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