too strong, if she had lost
her ear in the Wagner drama. The coarse intonation was more obvious in
the "Christe Eleison," sung by four solo voices, than in the "Kyrie,"
sung by the full choir; and she did catch a slight equivocation, and the
discovery tended to make her doubt Ulick's assertion that the altos were
wrong in the "Kyrie," for, if she heard right in one place, why did she
not hear right in another? The leading treble had a hard, unsympathetic
voice, which did not suit the florid passages occurring three times on
the second syllable of the word Eleison. He hammered them instead of
singing them tenderly, with just the sense of a caress in the voice.

But outside of such extreme criticism, in the audience of the ordinary
musical ear, the beautiful "Missa Brevis" was as well given as it could
be given in modern times, and Evelyn was, of course, anxious to see the
great prelate to whose energetic influence the revival of this music was
owing, the man who had helped to make her dear father's life a
satisfaction to him. It was just slipping into disappointment when the
prelate had come to save it. This was why Evelyn was so interested in
him--why she was already attracted toward him. It was for this reason
she was sitting in one of the front chairs, near to where Monsignor
would have to pass on his way to the pulpit. He was to preach that
Sunday at St. Joseph's.... He passed close to her, and she had a clear
view of his thin, hard, handsome face, dark in colour and severe as a
piece of mediaeval wood carving; a head small and narrow across the
temples, as if it had been squeezed. The eyes were bright brown, and
fixed; the nose long and straight, with clear-cut nostrils. She noticed
the thin, mobile mouth and the swift look in the keen eyes--in that look
he seemed to gather an exact notion of the congregation he was about to
address.

Already Evelyn trembled inwardly. The silence was quick with
possibility; anything might happen--he might even publicly reprove her
from the pulpit, and to strengthen her nerves against this influence,
she compared the present tension to that which gathered her audience
together as one man when the moment approached for her to come on the
stage. All were listening, as if she were going to sing; it remained to
be seen if the effect of his preaching equalled that of her singing. She
was curious to see.

"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner
that repente