There was an unmistakable sincerity about the way in which he completed his quotation: '"Lo! thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord."' It dawned on Hyacinth that quite possibly the Canon's view of the situation might be the right one.

It was certainly wonderfully pleasant to see the girls move through the room, and it seemed to him that they actually realized the almost forgotten ideal of serviceable womanhood.
The talk at dinner turned first on the ailments of an old woman who was accustomed to clean the church, but was now suspected of being past her work; then, by an abrupt transition, on the new hat which the bank-manager's wife had brought home from Dublin; and, finally, the connection of thought being again far from obvious, on the hymns which had been sung that morning.

It was at this point that Hyacinth was included in the conversation.

Marion Beecher announced that one of the hymns was a special favourite of hers, because she remembered her mother singing the younger children to sleep with it when they were babies.

She caught Hyacinth looking at her while she spoke, and said to him: 'Do you sing, Mr.Conneally ?' 'I do a little.' 'Oh, then you must come and help us in the choir.' 'Choir' seemed a grandiose name for the four Beechers and Mr.Quinn, but Marion, who had little experience of anything better, had no misgivings.