' 'I do best
with my regular accompanist,' I returned--meaning you, of course. I hope
you don't mind being degraded to that level. 'And your regular accompanist
is not--not----?' 'Is miles away,' I replied. 'A hundred and fifty of
them,' I might have added, if I had chosen to be specific. Now, if he had
wanted to hear me, why hadn't he asked? He would have needed only to second
Mrs. Phillips herself; and there he was, just on the other side of me. In
consequence of his reticence I was driven--or drove myself--to blank verse.
And that other man, the one in the chair; he may have had his expectations
too. Arthur, Arthur, try to grasp the situation! You must come down here,
and you must bring your hands with you. Tell the bishop and the precentor
that you are needed elsewhere. They will let you off. Of course I know that
a village choir needs every tenor it can get--and keep; but come. If they
insist, leave your voice behind; but do bring your hands and your reading
eye. Don't let me go along making my new circle think I'm an utter dub.
Tell your father plainly that he can never in the world make a wholesale-
hardware-man out of you.
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