The Service of the Temple

"The Service of the Temple" by Eleanor M. Ingram depicts a romantic drama centered on sculptor Renaud Chartiers and young aristocrat Désirée de St. Maury. Madame la Comtesse commissions Chartiers to carve an ornate marble cross for her chapel, due Easter morning, two days before Désirée's arranged marriage to de Suresne. During their encounters, Désirée inspires Chartiers with a rabbinical legend about Temple servers learning to balance inner and outer light. After a month of intensive work and a chance meeting with a stray kitten that Désirée tenderly adopts, Chartiers completes a translucent marble cross wreathed in carved lilies. On Easter dawn, they meet secretly in the chapel. Chartiers declares his love and proposes they flee together to marry before a sympathetic priest, circumventing her arranged marriage. Désirée accepts, placing her hand in his.