You're both correct! I guess it really wasn't so difficult after all -- assuming one has a basic familiarity with The Scarlet Letter.

Isn’t this the second A Harold Hill prays for his future girlfriend to win, to start as a gal with a touch of sin (A1) and become a good wife, in the long run (A2)?
Actually, Harold Hill is NOT looking for a future wife at this point in the story -- he makes his living as a traveling salesman, and enjoys the "unchained" life of a bachelor, with a girlfriend in every town. And, ironically, the "sadder but wiser" girl that he falls in love with is a nerdy (and virginal) librarian who obtains her "worldly wisdom" from reading the suggestive sexual humor in Chaucer, Shakespeare, Rabelais, and other writers, but not from real-life personal experience!

The way that actress Hermione Gingold (playing the respectable Wife of the Mayor) speaks the name "Balzac" to make it sound like an obscenity, is quite famous. Also, listen carefully for the women's "просторечье" pronunciation of the word "library" as "lie-berry" in this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbhnRuJBHLs

Harold Hill: And now the young lady who teaches the piano --
{the women continue gossiping}
Harold Hill: Uuhh, "Marian Paroo", I believe?
{the women gasp in horror}
Harold Hill: Well, after all, she is the librarian.

{Women gossip among themselves using old-fashioned slang expressions with lots of К, Т, Ч, and П sounds, to suggest the "cheep" and "cluck" noises of chickens: "She must've picked him up the first crack out of the box!" "Talkin' up to a man like that!" "Talkin' turkey to him" "Like to take her ticket and punch it!" "First crack like a cheap jack", etc. NB that the story takes place in 1912, and some of these expressions are almost incomprehensible to modern Americans!}

{Sung refrain}
Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little
Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more!
(etc.)

Woman: Professor, her kind of woman doesn't belong on any committee. Of course, I shouldn't tell you this, but SHE advocates dirty books!

Harold Hill: Dirty books?!

Woman #1: Chaucer!
Woman #2: Rabelais!
Mayor's Wife: BALZAC!

Woman #1: And the worst thing -- Of course, I shouldn't tell you this but...
Woman #2: I'll tell!
Woman #3: The man lived on my street, let ME tell!
Mayor's wife: Stop! I'll tell. She made brazen overtures to a man who never had a friend in this town till she came here. Old Miser Madison.
Harold Hill: "Miser" Madison? Madison Picnic-Park, Madison Gymnasium, Madison Hospital -- THAT Miser Madison?
Woman #1: Exactly. Who did he think he was, anyway?
Harold Hill: Well I should say. The show-off! He gave the town the library, too, didn't he?
Woman #2:That's just it! When he died, he left the lie-berry building to the city...
Woman #3:But he left all the books to HER!
Mayor's wife: She was seen going and coming from his place!

Woman #1: Oh, yes, that woman made brazen overtures
With a gilt-edged guarantee
She had a golden glint in her eye
And a silver voice with a counterfeit ring
Just melt her down and you'll reveal
A lump of lead as cold as steel
Here, where a woman's heart should be!

Women: He left River City the lie-berry building,
But he left all the books to her
Woman #1:Chaucer!
Woman #2:Rabelais!
Mayor's wife: BALL-SACK!

{Refrain}