“I am sure it is very kind of you,” I replied.

“Yes, I should certainly be glad if you could suggest to me something I might do in this way.  As regards money, I may say that I have plenty of it.  I am the owner of a most valuable property.  My business relations extend throughout the world, and if I am as fortunate in the projects of the future as I have been in the past, I shall probably one day achieve the proud position of being the richest man in the world.”

I did not like to undertake myself the responsibility of advising or suggesting, so I simply said: 

“I cannot venture to say, offhand, what would be the most acceptable way of showing your great kindness and generosity, but I should certainly recommend you to put yourself in communication with the dean.”

“Thank you, sir,” said my Australian friend, “I will do so.  And now, sir,” he continued, “let me say how much I admire your voice.  It is, without exception, the very finest and clearest voice I have ever heard.”

“Really,” I answered, quite overcome with such unqualified praise, “really it is very good of you to say so.”

“Ah, but I feel it, my dear sir.  I have been round the world, from Sydney to Frisco, across the continent of America” (he called it Amerrker) “to New York City, then on to England, and to-morrow I shall leave your city to continue my travels.  But in all my experience I have never heard so grand a voice as your own.”

This and a great deal more he said in the same strain, which modesty forbids me to reproduce.

Now I am not without some knowledge of the world outside the close of Marchbury Cathedral, and I could not listen to such a “flattering tale” without having my suspicions aroused.  Who and what is this man? thought I. I looked at him narrowly.  At first the thought flashed across me that he might be a “swell mobsman.”  But no, his face was too good for that; besides, no man with that huge frame, that personality so marked and so easily recognizable, could be a swindler; he could not escape detection a single hour.  I dismissed the ungenerous thought.  Perhaps he is rich, as he says.  We do hear of munificent donations by benevolent millionaires now and then.  What if this Australian, attracted by the glories of the old cathedral, should now appear as a deus ex machina to reendow the choir, or to found a musical professoriate in connection with the choir, appointing me the first occupant of the professorial chair?

These thoughts flashed across my mind in the momentary pause of his fluent tongue.

“As for yourself, sir,” he began again, “I have something to propose which I trust may not prove unwelcome.  But the public street is hardly a suitable place to discuss my proposal.  May I call upon you this evening at your house in the close?  I know which it is, for I happened to see you go into it yesterday after the morning service.”