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Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946

"The Turmoil, a novel"


"This afternoon some Handel!" he turned to shout.
Mary nodded. "Will you like that?" she asked Bibbs.
"I don't know. I never heard any except 'Largo.' I don't know
anything about music. I don't even know how to pretend I do. If
I knew enough to pretend, I would."
"No," said Mary, looking at him and smiling faintly, "you wouldn't."
She turned away as a great sound began to swim and tremble in the air;
the huge empty space of the church filled with it, and the two people
listening filled with it; the universe seemed to fill and thrill with
it. The two sat intensely still, the great sound all round about
them, while the church grew dusky, and only the organist's lamp made a
tiny star of light. His white head moved from side to side beneath it
rhythmically, or lunged and recovered with the fierceness of a duelist
thrusting, but he was magnificently the master of his giant, and it
sang to his magic as he bade it.
Bibbs was swept away upon that mighty singing. Such a thing was
wholly unknown to him; there had been no music in his meager life.
Unlike the tale, it was the Princess Bedrulbudour who had brought
him to the enchanted cave, and that--for Bibbs--was what made its
magic dazing.


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