But all this time there is music pouring out of the organ-loft at the end of the church, and flooding all its spaces with its volume.  In front of the organ is a choir of boys, led by a round-faced and jolly monk, who rolls about as he sings, and lets the deep bass noise rumble about a long time in his stomach before he pours it out of his mouth.  I can see the faces of all of them quite well, for each singer has a candle to light his music-book.

And next to the monk stands the boy,—­the handsomest boy in the whole world probably at this moment.  I can see now his great, liquid, dark eyes, and his exquisite face, and the way he tossed back his long waving hair when he struck into his part.  He resembled the portraits of Raphael, when that artist was a boy; only I think he looked better than Raphael, and without trying, for he seemed to be a spontaneous sort of boy.  And how that boy did sing!  He was the soprano of the choir, and he had a voice of heavenly sweetness.  When he opened his mouth and tossed back his head, he filled the church with exquisite melody.

He sang like a lark, or like an angel.  As we never heard an angel sing, that comparison is not worth much.  I have seen pictures of angels singing, there is one by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck in the gallery at Berlin,—­and they open their mouths like this boy, but I can’t say as much for their singing.  The lark, which you very likely never heard either, for larks are as scarce in America as angels,—­is a bird that springs up from the meadow and begins to sing as he rises in a spiral flight, and the higher he mounts, the sweeter he sings, until you think the notes are dropping out of heaven itself, and you hear him when he is gone from sight, and you think you hear him long after all sound has ceased.

And yet this boy sang better than a lark, because he had more notes and a greater compass and more volume, although he shook out his voice in the same gleesome abundance.

I am sorry that I cannot add that this ravishingly beautiful boy was a good boy.  He was probably one of the most mischievous boys that was ever in an organ-loft.  All the time that he was singing the vespers he was skylarking like an imp.  While he was pouring out the most divine melody, he would take the opportunity of kicking the shins of the boy next to him, and while he was waiting for his part, he would kick out behind at any one who was incautious enough to approach him.  There never was such a vicious boy; he kept the whole loft in a ferment.  When the monk rumbled his bass in his stomach, the boy cut up monkey-shines that set every other boy into a laugh, or he stirred up a row that set them all at fisticuffs.