“Why?”
“It’s an unsympathetic thing. It’s a cruel sort of thing.”
“Cruel? But it’s one of the best-known things in oratorio.”
“You made it quite new.”
“How?”
“It sounded fanatical when you sang it. I never heard it sound like that before.”
“Fanatical?” she said, and her voice was rather cold.
“Rosamund,” he said, quickly and anxiously, “you asked me to tell you exactly what I meant, what I felt, that is——”
“Yes, I know. Go on, Dion. Well? It sounded fanatical——”
“To me. I’m only telling you my impression. When I’ve heard ‘Woe unto them’ before it has always sounded sad, piteous if you like, a sort of wailing. When you sang it, somehow it was like a curse, a tremendous summoning of vengeance.”