What did Emmy Lou's blue hair-ribbons stand for? Blue is true, and she would be true to whatever the conviction of Papa.
"The strange organist is going to play the voluntary too," Hattie explained. "It's almost time for him to begin. Hurry."
As they went in, she told another thing: "Lorelei and her mother are here, sitting in a back pew."
There were two points of cheer in the service at Hattie's church as Emmy Lou saw it, the voluntary and the collection. She had referred to this last as the offertory on a visit long ago, but never would make the mistake again, so sharply had Hattie corrected her.
Hardly were they settled in their places in the pew with Hattie's father and mother, when a large man with black hair and shaggy brows made his way to the organ in the loft behind the minister, and the voluntary began.
This the voluntary that along with hymns is advocated for Sundays? This that stole over the keys hunting the melody, to find it here and lose it there, with a promise that baffled and a familiarity which eluded, to overtake it at length and proffer it in high and challenging measure that said gayly and triumphantly above the thunderous beat supporting it, in all but words, Fra Diavolo!
Hattie's face was shining! And the faces of her mother, of her father, and of the congregation around, radiated approval and satisfaction!
And in time the soprano of Hattie's church arose in the loft above the minister, supported by the choir. It was the collection.
It was more. It was "Selection No. 1—Sextette from Lucia"! Though the words did not say so!
Hattie, then, had not been blaming Lorelei but defending her? It was Sadie who disapproved of voluntaries and Lorelei?