GREGORIUS. “Salve, frater.” AGED STRANGER. “Prof. Hubanus, at your service; and having come from a great distance, and happily being born at a much later date, I guess you will find my services on this eve of your joyous festival of some value, for I am well acquainted with all the best Masses published. By the way, is one of the brethren lately departed this life?” GREGORIUS (_with astonishment_). “No, God be praised! Brother Augustine yonder did leave the infirmary vacant this morning, thanks to Our Blessed Lady, that no voice might be wanting in the choir on the morrow; but wherefore the question, good domne Hubanus?” HUBANUS. “Because I heard you but just now rehearsing such a sorrowful, in fact, so lugubrious, a _morceau_—an Offertory piece, I presume, for a Requiem Mass—that I supposed you were getting up the music for some such occasion.” (_The monks regard the aged stranger with no little surprise, mingled with curiosity._) GREGORIUS. “We must have made indeed sad work of it in our rehearsing. Worthy Hubanus, it was the _Gaudeamus_ you heard.” HUBANUS. “The _Gaudeamus_, eh? (_Aside._ I don’t remember seeing that in Ditson’s catalogue. I wonder what it is. _To Gregorius._) Would you mind repeating it once more?” GREGORIUS. “With pleasure. Sing, my brothers.” (_They sing the whole Introit._) HUBANUS. “Ah! fine; quite solemn! A Gregorian chant, I perceive. A very plaintive movement. The _finale_ has an exceedingly mournful effect. In D minor, is it not? Still, for a Requiem Offertory I think Rossini’s _Pro Peccatis_, or Gounod’s _Ave Maria_, or ‘Angels ever Bright and Fair,’ for a change, would please the congregation better.” ALL THE MONKS. “Plaintive! Our _Gaudeamus_ mournful! Calls an Introit an Offertory _piece_! Like a Requiem Offertory indeed! An _Ave Maria_ for that too! What does he mean by D minor? (_Blessing themselves._) Ab omni malo, libera nos, Domine!” HUBANUS. “Oh! beg pardon. That is an Introit, is it? Indeed! But, as I said, I have the honor to be born at a much later date than yourselves, and we don’t bother ourselves with singing those things in my day and country. We bring out the finest music, however, in our choir of the Church of S. Botolph, in the United States, that you can hear. I’m the organist and director.” GREGORIUS. “Not sing the Introit! Why, good domne Hubanus, our grand and joyous festival on the morrow would be robbed of one of its chief features if we failed to sing the _Gaudeamus_—I mean _the Gaudeamus_ that you have just heard.”