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VI

The choirmaster smiled deprecatingly. He had small, obsequious eyes and narrow shoulders. “If the gracious Herr would be so good,” he said, shrugging them a little. “The people have assembled.” He glanced back over the fast-filling church and raised his eyebrows a trifle to indicate the honor.

Bach smiled gravely. A humorous look came into his eyes. “Let the service go on as usual,” he said quietly. “When it is done, I will play–if time allows.”

The choirmaster squeezed his moist palms and wiped an anxious brow. “And that, too–will be well,” he murmured gratefully. “It will please the old organist,” he added apologetically.

Bach nodded his head. “I had thought of that.”

The other stared. “You know Reinken?” he asked.

The great organist shook his head. “I have seen him.” The humorous smile played about his lips. “I have never spoken with him.”

“He has been a great player–in his day,” said the choirmaster. The note of apology in his voice had deepened.

“That I know,” said Bach shortly.

“And now it is the people–they will not let him go,” murmured the choirmaster despairingly. “Each Sunday he must play–every motet and aria and choral–and he is ninety-nine. Mein Gott!” The choirmaster wiped his brow.

“It is a long life,” said Bach musingly. A sweet look had come into his face, like the sunlight on an autumn field. He raised his hand with a courteous gesture. “Let me be summoned later–at the right time.”

The choirmaster bowed himself away.

Already the notes of the great organ filled the church. It was Reinken’s touch upon the keys–feeble and tremulous here and there–but still the touch of the master.

With bent head Bach moved to a place a little apart and sat down. Curious glances followed him and whispers ran through the church, coming back to gaze at the severe, quiet face, with its look of sweetness and power.

He was unconscious of the crowd. His thoughts were with the old man playing aloft–the thin, serene face–the wrinkled hands upon the keys–twenty years…. The time had come–at last…. The music stole through his musings and touched him. He lifted his face as the sound swept through the church. The fire and strength of youth had gone from the touch, but something remained–something inevitable and gentle that soothed the spirit and lifted the heart–like the ghost of a soul calling to itself from the past.

Bach started. A hand had fallen on his shoulder. It was the choirmaster, small-eyed and eager. Bach followed him blindly.

At the top of the stairs the choirmaster turned and waited for him. “At last we have the honor. Welcome to the greatest master in Germany!” he said smoothly, throwing open the door.

Without a word Bach brushed past him. His eye sought the great organ. The master had left the bench and sat a few steps below, leaning forward, his hands clasped on his cane, his white head nodding tremblingly above it. Far below the words of the preacher droned to a close, and the crowd stirred and craned discreet necks.

Quietly the organist slipped into the vacant place. The Bach festival danced before him…. Uncle Heinrich on the platform–“The great Reinken–will no one of you promise?” His father’s face smiling, his father’s hand on his head…. Slowly his hands dropped to the keys.

The audience settled back with a sigh. At last they should hear him–the great Bach.

The silence waited, deep and patient and unerring, as it had waited a decade–the touch of this man. A sound crossed it and the audience turned bewildered faces. Question and dissent and wonder were in them…. Not some mighty fugue, as they had hoped–not even an aria, but a simple air from a quaint, old-fashioned choral,–“By the waters, the waters of Babylon.” They looked at one another with lifted brows. Reinken’s choral!–and played with Reinken’s very touch–a gentle, hurrying rhythm … as Reinken used to play it–when he was young…. In a moment they understood. Tears stood in bewildered eyes and a look of sweet good-will swept the church. He had given back to them their own. Their thought ran tenderly to the old man above, hearkening to his own soul coming to him, strong and swift and eternal, out of the years. Underneath the choral and above it and around, went the soul of Bach, steadfast and true, wishing only to serve, and through service making beautiful. He filled with wonder and majesty and tenderness the simple old choral.

A murmur ran through the church, a sound of love and admiration. And above, with streaming eyes, an old man groped his way to the organ, his hands held out to touch the younger ones that reached to him. “I thought my work had died,” he said slowly, “Now that it lives, I can die in peace.”