But you must have my confession." He had now resumed
entirely his half-playful tone. "I was just a little mistaken, you see--
too self-reliant, perhaps--when I supposed, in my first missionary ardor,
that I could get on without any remembrance of the world at all. I found
that I could not. And so I have taught the old operas to my choir--such
parts of them as are within our compass and suitable for worship. And
certain of my friends still alive at home are good enough to remember this
taste of mine and to send me each year some of the new music that I should
never hear of otherwise. Then we study these things also. And although
our organ is a miserable affair, Felipe manages very cleverly to make it
do. And while the voices are singing these operas, especially the old
ones, what harm is there if sometimes the priest is thinking of something
else? So there's my confession! And now, whether Trovatore is come or
not, I shall not allow you to leave us until you have taught all you know
of it to Felipe."
The new opera, however, had duly arrived. And as he turned its pages
Padre Ignacio was quick to seize at once upon the music that could be
taken into his church. Some of it was ready fitted. By that afternoon
Felipe and his choir could have rendered "Ah! se l' error t' ingombra"
without slip or falter.
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