Stephen stepped into the bookstore and looked around, hoping that he would find someone who would commit for sure to the choir. There were only four days left, and he'd only gotten a few definite yeses and a lot of maybes. Singers were notoriously unreliable.

There were a couple of people in the shop, but they all seemed to be absorbed in books.

He walked up to the magazine rack; the latest issue of Harper's Monthly had come in, with the next-to-last installment of Trilby. He picked it up and started perusing it.