"Look at him!--look at him!" cried the girl, fixing her eyes, starting
from their sockets, upon the seat, from which she had risen in terror. She
was clinging with convulsed hands to the railing of the organ-loft.

Everybody looked intently at the spot to which she directed her gaze. No
one was at the organ, yet it went on sounding--sounding like the songs of
the archangels in their bursts of mystic ecstasy.

"Didn't I tell you a thousand times, if I did once, dear Dona Baltasara--
didn't I tell you? There is some great mystery about this. What! didn't
you go last night to the Christmas Eve mass? Well, you must know, anyhow,
what happened. Nothing else is talked about in the whole city. The
archbishop is furious, and no wonder. Not to have gone to Santa Ines, not
to have been present at the miracle--and all to hear a wretched clatter!
That's all the inspired organist of San Bartolome made in the cathedral,
so persons who heard him tell me. Yes, I said so all the time. The
squint-eye never could have played that. It was all a lie. There is some
great mystery here. What do I think it was? Why, it was the soul of Maese
Perez."





MOORS AND CHRISTIANS
By Pedro Antonio De Alarcon
From "Moors and Christians,", by Pedro Antonio de Alarcon.
Translated by Mary J. Serrano.