steners were the players
themselves, so essentially typical were they of their respective
instruments; and they were even something more than typical, for they
did ultimately resemble them. The violinist must himself have answered
in these harmonious wails to the lightest question addressed to him. His
whole figure had surely that very look of obstinate surprise which
belongs to a violin. The bones in that lean body of his might have been
of catgut, so much did he play with his whole frame, so little
observably with his hands merely. As for Stella, apart from the
simplicity of her coloring, it was less easy to find physically a
resemblance to the piano, and yet how well her personality consorted
with one. Were she ignorant of the instrument, it would still be
possible to compare her to a piano with her character so self-contained
and cool and ordered that yet, played upon by people or circumstances,
could reveal with such decorous poignancy the emotion beneath, emotion,
however, that was always kept under control, as in a piano the pressure
or release of a pedal can swell or quell the most expressive chord.

There was something consolatory to Michael in the way Stella's piano
part corrected the extreme yearning of the violin. On ascending notes of
the most plangent desire the souls of the listeners were drawn far
beyond the capacity of their own artistic revelation. It became almost
tragical to watch their undisciplined soaring regardless of the height
from which they must so swiftly fall. Yet when the violin had
thoughtlessly lured them to such a zenith that had the music stopped
altogether on that pole a reaction into disappointed sobs might not have
been surprising, Stella with her piano brought them back to the normal
course of their hopes, seemed to bear tenderly each thwarted spirit down
to earth and to set it back in the lamps and shadows of this long
riverside room, while with the wistfulness of that cool accompaniment
she mitigated all the harshness of disillusion. Michael looked sharply
across at Ayliffe during this rescue and wondered how often by Stella
herself had he been just as gently treated.

The duet came to an end, and was followed by absurd games and absurdly
inadequate refreshments, until almost all together the guests departed.
From the street below fainter and fainter sounded their murmurous talk,
until it died away, swallowed up in the nightly whisper of the city.

Ayliffe stayed behind for a t