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.
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