CHAPTER I<br > Parochial<br > LIGHTS shone brightly through the big windows of the<br > parish church of Great Norne, and through them, too,<br > came the cheerful sound of voices in full song. The<br > voluntary choir of St. Martha s was just completing its<br > weekly practice; collectively they enjoyed letting them-<br > selves go on these Friday evenings, without restraint of<br > Service, and the more 30 now that Summer Time was over<br > and they had the bright lights to encourage them. To a<br > listener in the churchyard the singing might even have<br > appeared harmonious, because at that slight distance the<br > reedy treble of Miss Emily Vinton, a semitone flat what-<br > ever the key, was swallowed up in the general choral effect.<br > For ten years the harassed organist had begged his<br > Vicar to approach Miss Vinton on the subject of honour-<br > able retirement, but Mr. Torridge had not been able to<br > screw himself up to the pitch of striking such a cruel blow.<br > For the last fifty years, woman and girl, Emily had lifted<br > her voice in this choir, and for most of that time she and<br > her sister had been the mainstay on which succeeding<br >choirmasters relied, but twelve years ago Beatrice had<br >been struck down by paralysis, and Emily had never<br >recovered her pitch since that tragic evening.<br > Punctually at seven o clock the voices died away, the<br >big south door swung open, and out clattered a crowd of<br >small boys and large girls, followed more sedately by their<br >elders, six women and four men. Last of all came the<br >Vicar, in cassock and biretta, accompanied by his organist<br >and choirmaster, and by a small elderly lady in coat and<br >skirt of antique cut and hat of nineteenth-century design.<br > !<br >
發表於2024-12-23
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