Catherine glanced down the typewritten script and saw the signature at the bottom. It was George Trant. Her face a little flushed, she read on:
The Upton Rising Conservative Club, of which I am a member, is giving a concert on May 2nd, in aid of the local hospitals. A friend of mine (and a fellow-member) was so impressed by your playing this evening that he suggested I should ask you to play a pianoforte solo at our projected concert. I cordially agree with his idea, and hope you will be able to accept. I enclose a draft of the musical programme so that you may realize that we are having some really “star” artists down. Bernard Hollins, for instance, has sung at the Queen’s Hall. Please write back immediately in acceptance and let me know the name of the piece you propose to play, so that the programmes can go to press immediately. Excuse haste, as I must catch the 11.30 post.
Yours sincerely,
GEORGE TRANT.
Catherine re-read the letter twice before she commenced to criticize it keenly. Her keen criticism resulted in the following deductions. To begin with:
This was some subtle cunning of his to entrap her. He was clever enough to devise it.... What had she played last evening at the Bockley Victoria Theatre that could have “impressed” anybody so much? The show had been a third-rate revue, the music of which was both mediocre and childishly simple. The piano was bad. She had played, if anything, not so well as usual. The piano was, for the most part, drowned in the orchestra. Moreover, there were scores of pianoforte players in the district who would have been eager to appear on such a distinguished programme as the one he had sent. It was absurd to pick her out. She had no musical degree, had never played at a big concert in her life. The other artists might even object to her inclusion if they knew who she was. In any case, no astute concert-organizer would risk putting her in. She was well-known, and scores of people would say, as soon as they saw her on the platform: “Why, that’s the red-haired girl who plays the piano at the theatre.”
Catherine came to the definite conclusion that the letter was thoroughly “fishy.”
Yet she wrote back saying:
DEAR GEORGE,
Thanks for letter and invitation, which I am pleased to accept. My piece will be Liszt’s Concert Study in A flat, unless you think it too classical, in which case I can play a Polischinelle by Rachmaninov.