nt
gazing abstractedly at his littered table, clutching the edges of it with
both hands, resisting a momentary vertigo of his own.

She left her chair and came and stood beside him. She picked up one of
the quires of manuscript, opened it and gazed a while at the many-staved
score. He was aware of a catch in her breathing, like an inaudible sob,
but presently she spoke, quite steadily.

"I wish I could sit here to-night and read this. I wish it made even
unheard melodies to me. I'm not dumb but I am deaf to this. _There's_ a
spell beyond your powers to lift, my dear."

She laid her hand lightly upon his shoulder and at her touch his
taut-drawn muscles relaxed into a tremulous weakness. After a
little silence:

"Now give me my promise," she said.

He did not immediately answer and the hand upon his shoulder took hold.
Under its compulsion, "I'll promise anything you ask," he said.

She spoke slowly as if measuring her words. "Never to destroy this work
of yours that you call _The Dumb Princess_ whatever may conceivably
happen, however discouraged you may be about it."

"Very well," he said, "I won't."

"Say it as a promise," she commanded. "Quite explicitly."

So he repeated a form of words which satisfied her. She held him tight in
both hands for an instant. Then swiftly went back to her chair.

"Don't think me too foolish," she apologized. "I haven't been sleeping
much of late and I couldn't have slept to-night with a misgiving like
that to wonder about."

His own misgiving obscurely deepened. He did not know whether it was the
reason she had offered for exacting that promise from him or the mere
tone of her voice which was lighter and more brittle than he felt it
should have been. She must have read the troubled look in his face for
she said at once and on a warmer note:

"Oh, my dear, don't! Don't let my vagaries trouble you. Let me tell you
the message I came with. It's about the other opera. They want to put it
on at once up at Ravinia. With Fournier as the officer and that little
Spanish soprano as 'Dolores.' Just as you wrote it without any of the
terrible things you tried to put in for Paula. It will have to be sung
in French of course, because neither of them sings English. They want you
there just as soon as you can come, to sign the contract and help with
the rehearsals."

Once more with an utterly unexpected shift she left him floundering,
speechless.

He had forgotten _The Outcry_ except f