talent, it was very natural that he should succeed his father when the
latter died. And what a touch he has, God bless him! He always plays well,
always; but on a night like this he is wonderful. He has the greatest
devotion to this Christmas Eve mass, and when the host is elevated,
precisely at twelve o'clock, which is the time that Our Lord came into the
world, his organ sounds like the voices of angels.

"But why need I try to tell you about what you are going to hear to-night?
It is enough for you to see that all the elegance of Seville, the very
archbishop included, comes to a humble convent to listen to him. And it is
not only the learned people who can understand his skill that come; the
common people, too, swarm to the church, and are still as the dead when
Maese Perez puts his hand to the organ. And when the host is elevated--
when the host is elevated, then you can't hear a fly. Great tears fall
from every eye, and when the music is over a long-drawn sigh is heard,
showing how the people have been holding their breath all through.

"But come, come, the bells have stopped ringing, and the mass is going to
begin. Hurry in. This is Christmas Eve for everybody, but for no one is it
a greater occasion than for us."

So saying, the good woman who had been acting as cicerone for her neighbor
pressed through the portico of the Convent of Santa Ines, and elbowing
this one and pushing the other, succeeded in getting inside the church,
forcing her way through the multitude that was crowding about the door.


II.

The church was profusely lighted. The flood of light which fell from