Then, through the thin air comes the silvery sound of the clock of Peel church striking midnight, and then, clear and distinct, from the guards’ band the first bar of “The Feast of Stephen.”
“When the snow lay on the ground....”
After that another bar of it from the Third Compound (Oskar must be conducting):
“Deep and crisp and even....”
Then comes another bar from the First Compound, and then another and another from the distant Compounds Four and Five.
After that there is a second carol:
“Noël, Noël, born is the King of Israel....”
Then another carol and another, all played like the first, and finally, verse by verse, from near and far, the hymn she had selected:
“Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom.”