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nydus/The Quest of the Silver FleecePublic
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Table of Contents

XVI. The Great Refusal

kitchen. Let your ambition be to serve rather than rule, to be humble followers of the lowly Jesus.”

With an upward glance the Rev. ¬Ý Dr. ¬ÝBoldish sat down amid a silence a shade more intense than that which had greeted him.

Then slowly from the far corner rose a thin voice, tremulously. It wavered on the air and almost broke, then swelled in sweet, low music.

Other and stronger voices gathered themselves to it, until two hundred were singing a soft minor wail that gripped the hearts and tingled in the ears of the hearers.

Mr. ¬ÝBocombe groped with a puzzled expression to find the pocket for his notebook; Harry Cresswell dropped his eyes, and on Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool‚Äôs lips the smile died. Mary Taylor flushed, and Mrs. ¬ÝGrey cried frankly:

“Poor things!” she whispered.

‚ÄúNow,‚Äù said Mrs. ¬ÝGrey, turning about, ‚Äúwe haven‚Äôt but just a moment and we want to take a little look at your work.‚Äù She smiled graciously upon Miss Smith.

Mrs. ¬ÝGrey thought the cooking-school very nice.

“I suppose,” she said, “that you furnish cooks for the county.”

‚ÄúLargely,‚Äù said Miss Smith. Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool looked surprised, but Miss Smith added: ‚ÄúThis county, you know, is mostly black.‚Äù Mrs. ¬ÝGrey did not catch the point.

The dormitories were neat and the ladies expressed great pleasure in them.

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