"But how did you learn to read music in that style?" asked Christine.

"Of course it took me years to do so. But no one could join our musical
club at college who could not read anything placed before him."

"It must have been small and select, then."

"It was."

"How often had you sung that piece before?" asked Miss Brown.

"I never saw it before," answered Dennis.

"Why, it is just out," said Christine.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, our troubles are over at last," said Miss
Winthrop. "Mr. Fleet seems a good genius--equal to any emergency. If
he can sing that difficult passage, he can sing anything else we have.
We had better run over our parts, and then to our toilets."

One of the colorless young ladies played the accompaniments, her music
making a sort of neutral tint, against which their rich and varied
voices came out with better effect. They sung rapidly through the
programme, Dennis sustaining his parts correctly and with taste. He
could read like the page of an open book any music placed before him,
and years of practice enabled him to sing true and with confidence.
As he sung one thing after another with perfect ease, their wonder
grew; and when, in the final duet with Christine, they both came out
strongly, their splendid, thoroughly-trained voices blending in perfect