“Dear Agnes,” she said, “and dear Canon, I see you have got something to say to me. Oh, those darling children!”
But their parents’ tribute had to be added to hers.
“That is a sweet song,” said Agnes. “So full of morning, is it not, and of feeling? I thought the place where the church-bells came in was quite, quite perfect. An early service, I suppose.”
Mrs. Owen looked rather timid for a moment, but was brave again.
“Yes, that is the motif for the next song,” she said. “I am planning (is it not audacious?) a whole cycle. The next will be ‘Galahad’s Mass.’ Oh, Canon Alington, that is not Romish of me, is it? They were called masses in England, were they not, until the Reformation?”
“Undoubtedly,” said Canon Alington. “You can give no offence except to the narrow-minded by using the word. And then?”
Mrs. Owen gave a long-gasping sigh.
“Ah! what a relief,” she said. “I felt bound to consult you, and I was afraid you might think it rather risky to call it by that name. Well, after that, there is going to be ‘Galahad’s Adventure,’ which was foreshadowed in the second verse of the ‘Good-morning’! Then there will be ‘Galahad’s Matins,’ and another adventure, and then his dreams. I thought,” and the composer (words and music) laughed gently, “I thought after two adventures he might sleep a little in the afternoon.”
“Very beautiful, very poetical!” said Canon Alington.
“And then—oh, I wonder if you will say it is borrowed from ‘Siegfried?’—there will be a little intermezzo for the piano and perhaps a violin, describing his thoughts when he wakes and muses all by himself in the forest. Really, really it is quite different from the ‘Waldweben.’ And then comes his even-song, which is just a little hymn I composed, and then at the end ‘Galahad’s Good-night,’ which I think I sang to you a year ago. And—oh, Agnes and Canon Alington, I have a bone to pick with you; Mr. Hugh was there that night, and you—yes, you did—you encouraged me to sing before him. How could you? How cruel! I never knew that he sang at all then. I should never have dared.”