‘What am I supposed to do Whiteley? Your nephew was an abject failure last night and, as I now know, at the previous Thursday’s choir practice. He lost the respect of the choir men before he had even tried to gain it! You sold me a dog and a half!’

‘He was never allowed the opportunity to succeed, Vicar!’

‘Stanford George needed to succeed from the very first. I believed you when you said he could do the job! What a fool I looked at the archdeaconry service! And in front of the great and the good of Hartleydale! If it hadn’t been for that Frenchie everything would have gone awry! Absolutely everything!’

‘It was not Stanford’s fault! He is a good player, and you know it. Those men in the choir took against him from the start.’...

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