The Real Charlotte. 57 



Miss Mullen's heaving shoulders and extended jaw spoke of 

 nothing but her determination to out-scream everyone else ; 

 Miss Hope-Drumraond and the curate, on the bench in 

 front of him, were singing primly out of the same hymn- 

 book, the curate obviously frightened, Miss Hope-Drummond 

 as obviously disgusted. The Misses Beattie were furtively 

 eyeing Miss Hope-Drummond's costume ; Miss Kathleen 

 Baker was openly eyeing the curate, whose hymn-book she 

 had been wont to share at happier choir practices, and Miss 

 Fitzpatrick, seated at the end of the row, was watching from 

 the gallery window with unaffected interest the progress of 

 the usual weekly hostilities between Pamela's dachshund 

 and the sexton's cat, and was not even pretending to occupy 

 herself with the business in hand. Christopher's eyes rested 

 on her appraisingly, with the minute observation of short 

 sight, fortified by an eyeglass, and was aware of a small 

 head with a fluffy halo of conventionally golden hair, a 

 straight and slender neck, and an appleblossom curve of 

 cheek ; he found himself wishing that she would turn a little 

 further round. 



The hymn had seven verses, and Pamela and Mrs. Gas- 

 cogne were going inexorably through them all ; the school- 

 master and schoolmistress, an estimable couple, sole prop 

 of the choir on wet Sundays, were braying brazenly beside 

 him, and this was only the second hymn. Christopher's D 

 sharp melted into a yawn, and before he could screen it 

 with his hymn-book, Miss Fitzpatrick looked round and 

 caught him in the act. A suppressed giggle and a quick lift 

 of the eyebrows instantly conveyed to him that his sentiments 

 were comprehended and sympathised with, and he as in- 

 stantly was conscious that Miss Mullen was following the 

 direction of her niece's eye. Lady Dysart's children did 

 not share her taste for Miss Mullen ; Christopher vaguely 

 felt some offensive flavour in the sharp smiling glance in 

 which she included him and Francie, and an unexplainable 

 sequence of thought made him suddenly decide that her 

 niece was as second-rate as might have been expected. 



Never had the choir dragged so hopelessly ; never had 

 Mrs. Gascogne and Pamela compelled their victims to deal 

 with so many and difificult tunes, and never at any previous 

 choir practice had Christopher registered so serious a vow 



