As in duty bound I had shown the song to the Principal. I felt as though I were laying bare the innermost recesses of my soul as I sang the words, into which, by the way, I put as little expression as possible, “pour me donner une contenance,” but either he was too busy listening to the music or he was too kind to chaff me about them. In spite of the dreadful sentimentality of the words - perhaps for that very reason - the song had an unqualified success. It was loudly encored, and both the singer and I stepped off the platform highly pleased with each other. I had never written anything the least like it. It belonged to the same category of songs as Sir Arthur Sullivan’s “Let me dream again” and “Once Again’’ - two songs which one never hears now, but which had an immense vogue at the time they were written.