Soon, Maggie felt, they would
stamp and whistle did the play not begin.
Thurston rose and announced:
"My brothers, we will sing hymn No. 14 on the paper."
Maggie looked and discovered that it was the hymn that had once
moved her so dramatically in London with the words
By all Thy sores and bloody pain Come down and heal our sins again.
and with the last refrain:
By the blood, by the blood, by the blood of the Lamb We beseech
Thee.
Already, in spite of herself, in spite of her consciousness of the
melodrama and meretricious glitter of the scene, her heart was
beating. She was more deeply moved, even now, than she had ever been
by all the services of the Skeaton Church.
And Thurston had learnt his job by this time. Softly one of the
violins played the tune. Then Thurston said:
"The first verse of this hymn will be sung by the choir alone. The
congregation is asked to stand and then to join in the second verse.
The fourth verse will be sung by the soloist."
The audience rose. There was a hush of expectation throughout the
building. The choir, to the accompaniment of the fiddlers alone,
sang the first verse.
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