Read "A Daughter of Heth" by William Black online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR.
Coquette did not observe the presence of Lord Earlshope for some time. She was much engaged in the service, which was quite new to her. First of all, the Minister rose in his pulpit and read out a psalm; and then, under him, the Precentor rose, and begun, all by himself, to lead off the singing, in a strong harsh voice which had but little music in it. The tune was "Drumclog; " and as Coquette listened, she mentally grouped its fine and impressive melody with chords, and thought of the wonderful strength and sweetness that Mendelssohn could have imparted to that bare skeleton of an air. The people groaned rather than sung; there was not even an attempt at part-singing; the men merely followed the air an octave lower, except when they struck into quite a different key, and produced such dissonances as are indescribable. If the use of the piano were not entirely proscribed, she promised to herself that she would show the Whaup next morning the true character of that simple and noble air which was being so cruelly ill-treated.