ave a certain additional
interest to his remarks, he saluted me with "Good day, sir!"

"Good day," I answered, with just a little reserve in my tone.

"I hope, sir," he began, "you will excuse my stopping you in the street,
but I wish to tell you how very much I enjoyed the music at your cathedral
yesterday. I am an Australian, sir, and we have no such music in my
country."

"I suppose not," I said.

"No, sir," he went on, "nothing nearly so fine. I am very fond of music,
and as my business brought me in this direction, I thought I would stop at
your city and take the opportunity of paying a visit to your grand
cathedral. And I am delighted I came; so pleased, indeed, that I should
like to leave some memorial of my visit behind me. I should like, sir, to
do something for your choir."

"I am sure it is very kind of you," I replied.

"Yes, I should certainly be glad if you could suggest to me something I
might do in this way. As regards money, I may say that I have plenty of
it. I am the owner of a most valuable property. My business relations
extend throughout the world, and if I am as fortunate in the projects of
the future as I have been in the past, I shall probably one day achieve
the proud position of being the richest man in the world."

I did not like to undertake myself the responsibility of advising or
suggesting, so I simply said:

"I cannot venture to say, offhand, what would be the most acceptable way
of showing your great kindness and generosity, but I should certainly
recommend you to put yourself in communication with the dean."

"Thank you, sir," said my Australian friend, "I will do so. And now, sir,"
he continued, "let me say how much I admire your voice. It is, without
exception, the very finest and clearest voice I have ever heard."

"Really," I answered, quite overcome with such unqualified praise, "really
it is very good of you to say so."

"Ah, but I feel it, my dear sir. I have been round the world, from Sydney
to Frisco, across the continent of America" (he called it Amerrker) "to
New York City, then on to England, and to-morrow I shall leave your city
to continue my travels. But in all my experience I have never heard so
grand a voice as your own."

This and a great deal more he said in the same strain, which modesty
forbids me to reproduce.

Now I am not without some knowledge of the world outside the close of
Marchbury Cathedral, and I could not listen to such a "flattering tale