HUBANUS (_interrupting_). “Eighteen hundred and seventy‐four.” GREGORIUS (_continuing_)—“as the length and whiteness of your beard proclaim, while we have only the experience of one thousand years, the lessons of the church, and the _taste_ as well as the examples of the saints to profit by; but we must confess that of a _prima donna_ we have never yet heard.” ALL THE MONKS (_very decidedly_). “Never!” HUBANUS. “Never heard of a _prima donna_! Why, when _were_ you born? I mean, of course, the chief lady soprano who sings in the choir.” (_Here all the monks burst out laughing._) GREGORIUS (_having got his breath_). “Come, come, my ancient stranger, that explains all. We knew you must be ‘chaffing’ us, from the very first, with your ‘mournful _Gaudeamus_’ and your never singing Introits or obeying the rubrics and the rest. Ha! ha! Truly, a ‘chief lady in the choir’—_prima donna_, I think you named such a mythical personage—was only needed to cap the climax of your excellent joke.” HUBANUS. “Joke! I’m not joking at all. _We_ have ladies in our choir—(_aside_) and it’s no joke to manage them either—(_to Gregorius_) and pay them good salaries, as you must; for without that, you know, you never _can_ have good music.” (_Here the laughing of the monks suddenly subsided, followed by loud and angry whispers, of which the __ word __“__heretic__”__ was unmistakably heard. Brother Gregorius interposed._) “Judge not too hastily, good brothers. True, no church which oweth obedience to our Holy Father; the Pope, and which hath a right therefore to call itself Catholic, did ever yet permit women to sing in church choirs; but what she might have done in this matter in the country from which this aged stranger comes—be it ever so contrary to all the rubrics and traditions known unto us—we will the better learn from his own lips. Women, then, good domne Hubanus, do sing in the choir in the Catholic churches of your strange land, standing, perchance, beside the men‐singers?” HUBANUS. “Where else would they stand? You see we put the sopranos and tenors on one side, and the altos and basses on the other.” GREGORIUS (_scratching his shaven crown in great perplexity_). “We have yet to learn many wonderful things! Canst tell me, worthy Hubanus, how comes it? Does your learned friend, Dr. ——, speak of this matter in his celebrated ‘paper’? Doubtless he mentions some decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites which hath allowed this—this (_another scratch_) unheard‐of novelty?” HUBANUS. “I cannot remember that he made any allusion to it. In fact, I fancy that he would rather _not_, and I am glad he didn’t. But where’s the use of making a fuss over it? Haven’t women got voices as well as men, and what did the Lord give them voices for, if he did not intend them for use?” GREGORIUS. “In the choir?” HUBANUS. “In the choir, or out of the choir, what’s the difference?” GREGORIUS. “Do the rubrics allow it?”