ds, who was
perpetually dodging to and fro in a flushed manner between his place and
the organ, receiving instructions, and conveying whispered directions to
his youthful colleagues in the choir. The village organist had been
deposed from his high estate for the time being, and Lord Reggie
commanded the organ entirely--this fact becoming apparent during the
service in the abrupt alternations of loud and soft, the general absence
of pedal notes, and the continued employment of the _vox humana_ as
a solo stop during the singing of the psalms, to the undoing of the men
in the choir, and the extreme astonishment of the unused congregation.
At the beginning of the second lesson, too, Lord Reggie made his
presence known by the performance of a tumultuous and unexpected
obligato, which completely drowned the opening verses of the fourth
chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, and caused the painted
windows at the extreme end of the church to crackle in a manner that
suggested earthquakes and the last great day.

"What is he doing?" whispered Madame Valtesi to Amarinth. "Is it in the
thirty-nine articles?"

"No," replied Esme; "he is only getting up from his seat. How wonderful
he is! I never heard anything more impressive in my life. After all,
unpremeditated art is the greatest art. Such an effect as that could
never have been produced except impromptu."

The anthem passed off fairly well, although Jimmy Sands went rather
flat, perhaps owing to the fact that none of the party from the cottage
so much as glanced at him during his performance.

"He evidently made allowance for our staring," Madame Valtesi said
afterwards. "However, it can't be helped; we shall know better another
time. I thought his singing flat gave a touch of real character to the
anthem."

Mrs. Windsor was congratulating Mr. Smith on his charming little
service, and condoling with him on having been unable to pronounce the
blessing. This formality had been rendered impossible by the ingenious
action of Lord Reggie, who had forgotten about it, and evoked continuous
music from the organ ever since the amen of the prayer preceding it,
finally bursting into a loud fugue by Bach, played without the pedal
part, just when the curate was venturing to meekly insert it into a
second's interstice of comparative silence, brought about by the solo
employment of the _vox humana_ without accompaniment.

"However," said Mrs. Windsor, "I daresay it won't much