His aunt judged him charitably as she was sure to
do; she knew very well where the priggishness came from, and seeing that
the string of his tongue had been loosened sufficiently gave him no more
sherry.
It was after dinner, however, that he completed the conquest of his aunt.
She then discovered that, like herself, he was passionately fond of
music, and that, too, of the highest class. He knew, and hummed or
whistled to her all sorts of pieces out of the works of the great
masters, which a boy of his age could hardly be expected to know, and it
was evident that this was purely instinctive, inasmuch as music received
no kind of encouragement at Roughborough. There was no boy in the school
as fond of music as he was. He picked up his knowledge, he said, from
the organist of St Michael's Church who used to practise sometimes on a
week-day afternoon. Ernest had heard the organ booming away as he was
passing outside the church and had sneaked inside and up into the organ
loft. In the course of time the organist became accustomed to him as a
familiar visitant, and the pair became friends.
It was this which decided Alethea that the boy was worth taking pains
with.
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