He said: “Is it really true that your visit to Mrs. Staveley is coming to an end?”
I answered: “It comes to an end the day after to-morrow.”
“Are you sorry to be leaving your friends in London?”
What I might have said if he had made that inquiry a day earlier, when I was the most miserable creature living, I would rather not try to guess. Being quite happy as things were, I could honestly tell him I was sorry.
“You can’t possibly be as sorry as I am, Eunice. May I call you by your pretty name?”
“You will leave a blank in my life when you go away--”
There another chorus stopped him, just as I was eager for more. It was such a delightfully new sensation to hear a young gentleman telling me that I had left a blank in his life. The next change in the Oratorio brought up a young lady, singing alone. Some people behind us grumbled at the smallness of her voice. We thought her voice perfect. It seemed to lend itself so nicely to our whispers.
He said: “Will you help me to think of you while you are away? I want to imagine what your life is at home. Do you live in a town or in the country?”
I told him the name of our town. When we give a person information, I have always heard that we ought to make it complete. So I mentioned our address in the town. But I was troubled by a doubt. Perhaps he preferred the country. Being anxious about this, I said: “Would you rather have heard that I live in the country?”
“Live where you may, Eunice, the place will be a favorite place of mine. Besides, your town is famous. It has a public attraction which brings visitors to it.”
I made another of those mistakes which no sensible girl, in my position, would have committed. I asked if he alluded to our new market-place.
He set me right in the sweetest manner: “I alluded to a building hundreds of years older than your market-place--your beautiful cathedral.”
Fancy my not having thought of the cathedral! This is what comes of being a Congregationalist. If I had belonged to the Church of England, I should have forgotten the market-place, and remembered the cathedral. Not that I want to belong to the Church of England. Papa’s chapel is good enough for me.
The song sung by the lady with the small voice was so pretty that the audience encored it. Didn’t Philip and I help them! With the sweetest smiles the lady sang it all over again. The people behind us left the concert.