The Lighter Side of English LifeMoore, Frank Frankfort
General
The Lighter Side of English Life
Moore, Frank Frankfort
England -- Social life and customs; England -- Social life and customs -- Humor
Inquiries were made as to who the singer actually was; but no one seemed
to know her. She was a stranger, and was certainly not living in the
town.
The next Sunday brought about a repetition of the same rather
embarrassing scene. The vocalist, who was a very handsome and an
expensively but not showily dressed young woman, sang as before quite
unconcernedly, and apparently oblivious of having done anything out of
the common.
At the end of the first hymn, however, the organist's boy was seen to
approach her, and to put a piece of paper into her hand. It obviously
contained a message to which an answer was required, for the boy waited
while she read the thing, and then she inclined her head, evidently
signifying her assent to whatever suggestion it conveyed to her.
No one who saw the act doubted that the organist had sent her a message,
begging her not to sing quite so loud.
In due course the precentor announced that “the anthem is taken from Job
xix. verses 25, 26: 'I know that my Redeemer liveth... and though worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.'”
The lovely notes of the organ obbligato were heard in the introduction,
and then the people in the church became aware of the fact that the
melody was not being sung by the usual choir-boy, but by the stranger;
and never before had it been sung with such feeling or such an
appreciation of its beauty. It was natural that the old Cathedral-goers
should look at one another with startled eyes at first--here was an
innovation indeed!--but before long the most hardened of them all
had yielded to the exquisite charm of the girl's voice, and when the
triumphant notes rang out there was no one who remained unmoved under
that ancient canopy of Gothic arches.
And that unhappily is the end of the whole story. The girl and the
elderly lady who had come with her to the Minster walked away at the
close of the service, and no one was able to say in what direction they
went or whence they had come. No one in the town knew either of
them. They had not been at any hotel, nor had they taken the train to
London--the organist made it a point to be at the station to find out.
That beautiful, singer might have been a celestial visitant sent as a
special compliment to the organist of the Minster--it was rumoured that
the views of the organist were strongly in favour of this theory--so
mysteriously had she come and so utterly had she vanished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account