semi-sacred
concert of picked talent" at the opera house. The Moonstone Orchestra,
under the direction of Professor Wunsch, was to play, and the most
talented members of each Sunday School were to take part in the
programme. Thea was put down by the committee "for instrumental." This
made her indignant, for the vocal numbers were always more popular. Thea
went to the president of the committee and demanded hotly if her rival,
Lily Fisher, were going to sing. The president was a big, florid,
powdered woman, a fierce W.C.T.U. worker, one of Thea's natural enemies.
Her name was Johnson; her husband kept the livery stable, and she was
called Mrs. Livery Johnson, to distinguish her from other families of
the same surname. Mrs. Johnson was a prominent Baptist, and Lily Fisher
was the Baptist prodigy. There was a not very Christian rivalry between
the Baptist Church and Mr. Kronborg's church.

When Thea asked Mrs. Johnson whether her rival was to be allowed to
sing, Mrs. Johnson, with an eagerness which told how she had waited for
this moment, replied that "Lily was going to recite to be obliging, and
to give other children a chance to sing." As she delivered this thrust,
her eyes glittered more than the Ancient Mariner's, Thea thought. Mrs.
Johnson disapproved of the way in which Thea was being brought up, of a
child whose chosen associates were Mexicans and sinners, and who was, as
she pointedly put it, "bold with men." She so enjoyed an opportunity to
rebuke Thea, that, tightly corseted as she was, she could scarcely
control her breathing, and her lace and her gold watch chain rose and
fell "with short, uneasy motion." Frowning, Thea turned away and walked
slowly homeward. She suspected guile. Lily Fisher was the most stuck-up
doll in the world, and it was certainly not like her to recite to be
obliging. Nobody who could sing ever recited, because the warmest
applause always went to the singers.

However, when the programme was printed in the Moonstone GLEAM, there it
was: "Instrumental solo, Thea Kronborg. Recitation, Lily Fisher."

Because his orchestra was to play for the concert, Mr. Wunsch imagined
that he had been put in charge of the music, and he became arrogant. He
insisted that Thea should play a "Ballade" by Reinecke. When Thea
consulted her mother, Mrs. Kronborg agreed with her that the "Ballade"
would "never take" with a Moonstone audience. She advised Thea to play
"something with variations," or, at least,