Читать книгу Glamorous Powers - Susan Howatch - Страница 47

‘I hear you’re making a cross,’ said Francis the next day. ‘Amusing for you. How long will it take?’

‘Longer than it should. I’m out of practice.’

‘What’s so difficult about making a cross?’ said Francis, deliberately provocative. ‘Can’t you just bang a couple of bits of wood together?’

‘No, Father. I have some very beautiful oak and I want to make the cross out of that one piece, taking every chance to display the grain of the wood to its best advantage.’

‘Well, I suppose that’s all very soothing for your equilibrium-maybe I should take up carpentry myself. I’ve got a novice hearing voices, a visiting bishop who’s in a muddle about pacifism, four young shirkers who swear they’re called to be monks, Harrods trying to sell me something called a radiogram instead of a modest wireless, twenty unanswered letters requesting advice on topics ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous – oh, and I nearly forgot! An abbot whose psychic powers are running riot! When you return to your cell, Jonathan, go down on your knees and thank God you were spared the ordeal of being Abbot-General.’

‘Yes, Father.’

‘Very well, go away, I’m too busy to bother with you at the moment. I’ll send for you in a day or two.’

Exerting an iron will to control my temper I retired once more to the workshop.