To Martin Moore 's outward mastery of the violin was added the mystery and intensity of his mother 's nature , with some more subtle quality still , which had perhaps come to him from the grandmother he so strongly resembled . Moore had understood what a career was naturally before the child , and he had trained him in the technique of his art from the time the slight fingers could first grasp the bow . When nine-year-old Felix came to the Carmody manse , he had mastered as much of the science of the violin as nine out of ten musicians acquire in a lifetime ; and he brought with him his father 's violin ; it was all Martin Moore had to leave his son -- but it was an Amati , the commercial value of which nobody in Carmody suspected . Mr. Leonard had taken possession of it and Felix had never seen it since . He cried himself to sleep many a night for the loss of it . Mr. Leonard did not know this , and if Janet Andrews suspected it she held her tongue -- an art in which she excelled . She `` saw no harm in a fiddle , '' herself , and thought Mr. Leonard absurdly strict in the matter , though it would not have been well for the luckless outsider who might have ventured to say as much to her . She had connived at Felix 's visits to old Abel Blair , squaring the matter with her Presbyterian conscience by some peculiar process known only to herself . When Janet heard of the promise which Mr. Leonard had exacted from Felix she seethed with indignation ; and , though she `` knew her place '' better than to say anything to Mr. Leonard about it , she made her disapproval so plainly manifest in her bearing that the stern , gentle old man found the atmosphere of his hitherto peaceful manse unpleasantly chill and hostile for a time . It was the wish of his heart that Felix should be a minister , as he would have wished his own son to be , had one been born to him . Mr. Leonard thought rightly that the highest work to which any man could be called was a life of service to his fellows ; but he made the mistake of supposing the field of service much narrower than it is -- of failing to see that a man may minister to the needs of humanity in many different but equally effective ways . Janet hoped that Mr. Leonard might not exact the fulfilment of Felix 's promise ; but Felix himself , with the instinctive understanding of perfect love , knew that it was vain to hope for any change of viewpoint in his grandfather . He addressed himself to the keeping of his promise in letter and in spirit . He never went again to old Abel 's ; he did not even play on the organ , though this was not forbidden , because any music wakened in him a passion of longing and ecstasy which demanded expression with an intensity not to be borne . He flung himself grimly into his studies and conned Latin and Greek verbs with a persistency which soon placed him at the head of all competitors . Only once in the long winter did he come near to breaking his promise . One evening , when March was melting into April , and the pulses of spring were stirring under the lingering snow , he was walking home from school alone . As he descended into the little hollow below the manse a lively lilt of music drifted up to meet him . It was only the product of a mouth-organ , manipulated by a little black-eyed , French-Canadian hired boy , sitting on the fence by the brook ; but there was music in the ragged urchin and it came out through his simple toy . It tingled over Felix from head to foot ; and , when Leon held out the mouth-organ with a fraternal grin of invitation , he snatched at it as a famished creature might snatch at food .
Then , XXXXX it half-way to his lips , he paused .
As because below by for from on since through with