I have just come back² from a long stay in France³ and Italy⁴, and the punishment of a holiday is that I have now to face a really terrifying mountain of letters which have been held for me here in my absence. I am working through this accumulation gradually and have just come upon your letter, to which I reply with real pleasure.

You are one in about seventy-five thousand, apparently, for you are the only person who has noticed that I changed the text⁵ of the famous aria in the Elijah⁶; changed it for exactly the purpose you divine. The whole story⁷ verges dangerously upon the sentimental (since youthful hero worship is really the theme of the first two parts of the book), and if I had used the text of that aria as it actually stands, it would have been quite unbearable. Among the letters I have so far read, there are at least a dozen from concert musicians to whom this story seems to have appealed; but not one of them has noticed my variation of the text, although several are baritones who have sung the Elijah many times. I am delighted to have found one reader who did notice it because, of course, to a writer all those slight changes in language have great importance - perhaps an exaggerated importance. Please let me thank you for your friendly letter and wish you all good things for the New Year.