Gladys, the Reaper. Anne Beale
'My dear Freda, are you going out? I really am sorry to stop your amusement, and so forth, but I cannot play,' said Mr. Gwynne.
'Exactly, papa; we will go directly if Miss Hall likes.'
The three ladies left the room, and, as Rowland glanced after them, he very decidedly wished that he might be permitted to accompany them. One other great wish he also had at his heart, the conversion of Miss Gwynne to a purer and higher tone of mind. He did not, we grieve to say, bestow a similar pastoral thought on Miss Nugent.
'That position of your queen at such an early stage of the game must be an oversight, I think. Excuse me, but I could not take such an unfair advantage,' said Mr. Gwynne.
Rowland was roused at once. He gave himself up to his game, and an hour afterwards, when the ladies returned from their walk, and candles were ordered, it was still in progress, but he had the best of it.
'Will you sing for us, Serena?' said Freda.
'Will you sing a duet with me?' was the reply.
The duet was sung, and another and another and another, and Rowland lost the game.
Mr. Gwynne arose, very much elated and rubbing his hands gently, according to his wont.
'How do you feel, general, defeated?' asked Freda.
'Very much like a subaltern,' said Rowland.
'Do you sing, Mr. Prothero?' asked Miss Hall; 'all the Welsh are so musical that I think there are few who have not voices.'
'I sometimes sing chants and sacred music; but I know very few songs, and those old ones.'
'Perhaps you will take the bass of some of these old glees. Here is "The Chough and Crow," "When shall we three meet again," "The Canadian Boat Song," "The Sicilian Mariner," and I know not how many more,' said Miss Hall, turning over the leaves of a thick old book full of glees.
'I will do my best,' said Rowland, and the glees began in earnest.
All the Protheros were musical, and Rowland had a very fine clear voice. Miss Hall was right in saying that the Welsh are a musical people; Rowland was a happy example. He had been studying Church music a good deal, and learning to take different parts, so he acquitted himself very creditably in the glees, all of which he had either tried or heard sung. Freda was quite astonished. She had a great taste for music herself, and a good voice, but would never sing with any one but Miss Hall, a piece of wilfulness that her father occasionally reproached her with. The addition of Rowland was rather agreeable to her, as it enabled them to sing the glees that she was fond of. She no longer objected to the chess, and when her father proposed giving Rowland his revenge on the morrow, she added, 'And then we can wind up with a few more glees.'
Rowland bowed his thanks and departed.
During the ensuing month there were frequent chess and glee clubs at Glanyravon. What the effect such associations had upon Rowland he never confided to any one, but when Miss Hall expressed her opinion that 'Mr. Prothero was a sensible, unaffected young man, but shy,' Freda condescended to say, 'Well, he is not quite such a Goth or half as affected as I fancied he was, but he has a very good opinion of himself, nevertheless.'
In due course Rowland went to London to be ordained, and so ended the chess and glee clubs.
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