only said, '_Con_tinue.' I hated him all the long way from the top
of his hair to the toe of his polished boot."

"Nonsense, Mab; he has a splendid profile," said Kate.

"_Now_, but not _then_. I cannot bear people to keep their minds
bottled up for the sake of letting them off with a pop. They seem to
grudge making you happy unless they can make you miserable beforehand.
However, I forgive him everything," said Mab, with a magnanimous air,
"but he has invited me. I wonder why he fixed on me as the musical one?
Was it because I have a bulging forehead, ma, and peep from under it
like a newt from under a stone?"

"It was your way of listening to the singing, child," said Mrs.
Meyrick. "He has magic spectacles and sees everything through them,
depend upon it. But what was that German quotation you were so ready
with, Mirah--you learned puss?"

"Oh, that was not learning," said Mirah, her tearful face breaking into
an amused smile. "I said it so many times for a lesson. It means that
it is safer to do anything--singing or anything else--before those who
know and understand all about it."

"That was why you were not one bit frightened, I suppose," said Amy.
"But now, what we have to talk about is a dress for you on Wednesday."

"I don't want anything better than this black merino," said Mirah,
rising to show the effect. "Some white gloves and some new _bottines_."
She put out her little foot, clad in the famous felt slipper.

"There comes Hans," said Mrs. Meyrick. "Stand still, and let us hear
what he says about the dress. Artists are the best people to consult
about such things."

"You don't consult me, ma," said Kate, lifting up her eyebrow with a
playful complainingness. "I notice mothers are like the people I deal
with--the girls' doings are always priced low."

"My dear child, the boys are such a trouble--we could never put up with
them, if we didn't make believe they were worth more," said Mrs.
Meyrick, just as her boy entered. "Hans, we want your opinion about
Mirah's dress. A great event has happened. Klesmer has been here, and
she is going to sing at his house on Wednesday among grand people. She
thinks this dress will do."

"Let me see," said Hans. Mirah in her childlike way turned toward him
to be looked at; and he, going to a little further distance, knelt with
one knee on a hassock to survey her.

"This would be thought a very good stage-dress for me," she said,
pleadingly, "in a part where I was t