t she had
expected. Professor Hecksher felt that she might have a future in grand
opera, only she was far too young and too untrained to attempt it for
several years. So she must stay on in Germany, working unceasingly with
him until they could both understand more thoroughly her capabilities.

Esther let this single sheet of paper slip out of her hand to the
ground, where Dick picked it up, returning it to her. But not before he
had recognized the master's handwriting and letter head.

"It is all right, isn't it?" he queried, surprised at the girl's
expression.

"Oh, yes, I suppose so," she replied, not looking at him but at a far
stretch of country with her eyes and of years with her mind. "Only I
expect I am what both Betty and Polly think me, an ungrateful and
unreasonable person with no ambition and no imagination."

Dick was silent for a moment and then answered, "No, Esther, I do not
believe you appreciate what a great gift you have; you are too modest
and care too little for the applause most of the people in the world are
willing to sacrifice everything for."

Richard Ashton turned his serious dark eyes upward toward the tall, pale
girl sitting in the chair near him. "Esther," he said, "I want to tell
you, to make you believe what a great gift you have. I love you, and
more than anything on earth I want you to be my wife. The other day when
Anthony Graham came with the news from Woodford that Betty had inherited
a small fortune I was happier than I can ever tell you. And it was not
for Betty's sake or even mother's; it was a selfish happiness. For then
I believed that both you and I were released from our first duty to them
and that I had the right to tell you that I cared for you and meant to
try and make you love me. Then came the night of your concert, when I
heard you sing. And since then, Esther, I have realized that I have no
right to ask you to give up the career that is before you and to ask you
to share my uncertain future. For with my work I could not follow yours
and my profession is the one thing I have learned. I had not meant to
tell you this, but, after all, Esther, I don't know why I should not. A
girl can never be hurt by knowing that a man loves her."

And for the second time Dick kissed Esther's hand and then turned his
face away.

The next moment the girl had risen from her chair. "Dr. Ashton, will you
take a walk with me?" she asked. "I am tired sitting here."

Then, without referr