He was before the altar at the moment, his back to the congregation.

Most of them were working people who had only their evenings free, and for whom these services were held: girls from the department stores, servants with an evening out, trainmen from the Elevated, off duty for an hour or two, small storekeepers whose places closed early, with their wives and children beside them, all under the spell of the hushed interior.

Some prayed without moving, their heads bowed; others kept their eyes fixed on the priest.

One or two had their faces turned toward the choir-loft, completely absorbed in the full, deep tones that rolled now and then through the responses.
Nothing of all this impressed Felix at first.

He had always regarded the Roman Catholic church as embodying a religion adapted only to the ignorant and the superstitious.