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| Evelyn Waugh's Masterpiece |
"After dinner Brideshead said: 'I'm afraid I must take Sebastian away for half an hour. I shall be busy all day tomorrow, and I'm off immediately after the show. I've a lot of papers for father to sign. Sebastian must take them out and explain them to him. It's time you were in bed, Cordelia.' 'Must digest first,' she said. 'I'm not used to gorging like this at night. I'll talk to Charles.' '"Charles"?' said Sebastian. '"Charles"?' "Mr Ryder" to you, child.' 'Come on Charles.' When we were alone: she said: 'Are you really an agnostic?' 'Does your family always talk about religion all the time?' 'Not all the time. It's a subject that just comes up naturally, doesn't-it?' 'Does it? It never has with me before.' 'Then perhaps you are an agnostic. I'll pray for you.' 'That's very kind of you.' 'I can't spare you a whole rosary you know. Just a decade. I've got such a long list of people. I take them in order and they get a decade about once a week.' 'I'm sure it's more than I deserve.' 'Oh, I've got some harder cases than you. Lloyd George and the Kaiser and Olive Banks.' 'Who is she?' 'She was bunked from the convent last term. I don't quite know what for. Reverend Mother found something she'd been writing. D'you know, if you weren't an agnostic, I should ask you for five shillings to buy a black god-daughter.' 'Nothing will surprise me about your religion.' 'It's a new thing a missionary priest started last term. You send five bob to some nuns in Africa and they christen a baby and name her after you. I've got six black Cordelias already. Isn't it lovely?'"
Oh and for those interested the whole TV Series on the book can be found on YouTube as seen below
+JMJ+
It is said that in some Catholic grade school classrooms, rows of students competed in fundraising for the right to name the pagan baby. This motivated some among the less pious to give in the hope an African infant would be christened, say, Throckmorton.
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