"Yes, if you will sing with me."
"I would rather listen, but will accept your condition when I can."
She would only sing what he knew, and noted in pleased surprise that his musical culture was by no means trifling.
"How could you take time from your grave theological studies for such a comparatively trifling thing as music?" she asked.
"Some practical knowledge of music is no trifling matter with me," he replied. "In view of my prospective field of work, next to learning to preach, learning to sing is the most important. I shall have to start the hymns, as a general thing, and often sing them alone."
"How can you look forward to such a life?"
"I can look forward in grateful gladness. I only wish I were more worthy of my work."
"Did I not know your sincerity I should say that was affectation."
"Who was it that preached to the 'common people,' and in the obscure little towns of Palestine eighteen centuries ago? Am I better than my Master?"
"You are far better than I am. No one has ever talked to me as you have. I might have been different if they had."