" But there was not a sign of a
chairman, not even a chair. The people just came up
themselves, without anybody telling them, and did their
piece and went back. It looked sort of bold to Pearl.
First the choir came in and sang: "Praise Waiteth for
Thee, O Lord, in Zion." Pearl did not like the way they
treated her friend Dr. Clay. Twice when he began to sing
a little piece by himself, doing all right, too, two or
three of them broke in on him and took the words right
out of his mouth. Pearl had seen people get slapped faces
for things like that. Pearl thought it just served them
right when the doctor stopped singing and let them have
it their own way.
When the professor came up the aisle everybody leaned
forward to have a good look at him. "He is just like
folks only for his hair," Pearl thought. Pearl lifted
Danny on her knee and told him to look alive now. She
knew what they were there for.
Then the professor began to play. Indifferently at first
after the manner of his kind, clever gymnastics to limber
up his fingers perhaps, and perhaps to show how limber
they are; runs and trills, brilliant execution, one hand
after the other in mad pursuit, crossing over, back again,
up and down in the vain endeavour to come up with the
other hand; crescendo, diminuendo, trills again!
Danny yawned widely.
"When's he goin' to begin?" he asked, sleepily.
Mrs. Francis watched Danny eagerly. The musical sense
was liable to wake up any minute.
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