A fortune had been expended on Alice's musical education, yet she
could do no more than rattle through some mediocre composition, with
neither taste nor skill.
The money which has been wasted in trying to teach music to unmusical
people would pay our national debt twice over, and leave a competency
for every orphan in the land.
When the organist had finished her second selection, Mr Cheney
addressed the same question to his wife which he had addressed to
Alice.
"Who is the new organist?" he queried. Mabel only shook her head and
placed her finger on her lip as a signal for silence during service.
The third time it was the Baroness, sitting just beyond Mabel, to
whom Mr Cheney spoke. "That's a very remarkable musician, very
remarkable," he said. "Do you know anything about her?"
"Yes, wait until we get home, and I will tell you all about her," the
Baroness replied.
When the service was over, Mr Cheney did not pass out at once, as was
his custom. Instead he walked toward the pulpit, after requesting
his family to wait a moment.
The rector saw him and came down into the aisle to speak to him.
"I want to congratulate you on the new organist," Mr Cheney said,
"and I want to meet her. Alice tells me it is a lady. She must have
devoted a lifetime to hard study to become such a marvellous mistress
of that difficult instrument.
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