Chapter 5 - Page 2

newspaper since he left school;
and there is probably not a happier pair in England."

"I presume she had sense enough to know that she could not afford to
choose," said Alice, complacently. "She is very ugly."

"Do you think so? She has many admirers, and was, I am told, engaged
to Mr. Herbert, the artist, before she met Mr. Hoskyn. We shall meet
Mr. Herbert there to-morrow, and a number of celebrated persons
besides--his wife, Madame Szczymplica the pianiste, Owen Jack the
composer, Hawkshaw the poet, Conolly the inventor, and others. The
occasion will be a special one, as Herr Abendgasse, a remarkable
German socialist and art critic, is to deliver a lecture on 'The
True in Art.' Be careful, in speaking of him in society, to refer to
him as a sociologist, and not as a socialist. Are you particularly
anxious to hear him lecture?"

"No doubt it will be very interesting," said Alice. "I should not
like to miss the opportunity of going to Mrs. Hoskyn's. People so
often ask me whether I have been there, and whether I know this,
that, and the other celebrated person, that I feel quite embarrassed
by my rustic ignorance."

"Because," pursued Lydia, "I had intended not to go until after the
lecture. Herr Abendgasse is enthusiastic and eloquent, but not
original; and as I have imbibed all his ideas direct from their
inventors, I do not feel called upon to listen to his exposition of
them. So that, unless you are specially interested--"

"Not at all. If he is a socialist I should much rather not listen to
him, particularly on Sunday evening."

So it was arranged that they should go to Mrs. Hoskyn's after the
lecture. Meanwhile they went to Sydenham, where Alice went through
the Crystal Palace with provincial curiosity, and Lydia answered her
questions encyclopedically. In the afternoon there was a concert, at
which a band played several long pieces of music, which Lydia seemed
to enjoy, though she found fault with the performers. Alice, able to
detect neither the faults in the execution nor the beauty of the
music, did as she saw the others do--pretended to be pleased and
applauded decorously. Madame Szczymplica, whom she expected to meet
at Mrs. Hoskyn's, appeared, and played a fantasia for pianoforte and
orchestra by the famous Jack, another of Mrs. Hoskyn's circle. There
was in the programme an analysis of this composition from which
Alice learned that by attentively listening to the adagio she could
hear the angels singing therein. She listened as attentively as she
could, but heard no angels, and was astonished when, at the
conclusion of the fantasia, the audience applauded Madame
Szczymplica as if