onderful music there, and Mr.
Delarey knows it so well."

Lord Ashleigh nodded portentously.

"I have not finished yet. Mr. Delarey wound up his letter by promising to
cable me his final decision in the course of a few days. This cablegram,"
he went on, drawing a little slip of blue paper from his pocket, "was
brought to me this morning whilst I was shaving. I found it a most
inconvenient time, as the lather--"

"Oh, bother the lather, father!" Ella exclaimed. "Read the cablegram, or
let me."

Her father smoothed it out before him and read--

"To Lord Ashleigh, Hamblin House, Dorset, England.

"I find a magnificent programme arranged for at Metropolitan
Opera House this year. Have taken box for your daughter, engaged
the best professor in the world, and secured an apartment at the
Leeland, our most select and comfortable residential hotel.
Understand your brother is still in South America, returning
early spring, but will do our best to make your daughter's year
of study as pleasant as possible. Advise her sail on Saturday by
Mauretania."

"On Saturday?" Ella almost screamed.

"New York!" Lady Ashleigh murmured disconsolately. "How impossible,
George!"

Her husband handed over the letter and cablegram, which Ella at once
pounced upon. He then unfolded the local newspaper and proceeded to make
an excellent breakfast. When he had quite finished, he lit a cigarette and
rose a little abruptly to his feet as a car glided out of the stable yard
and slowly approached the front door.

"I shall now," he said, "leave you to talk over and discuss this matter
for the rest of the day. I believe you said, dear," he added, turning to
his wife, "that we were dining alone to-night?"

"Quite alone, George," Lady Ashleigh admitted. "We were to have gone to
Annerley Castle, but the Duke is laid up somewhere in Scotland."

"I remember," her husband assented. "Very well, then, at dinner-time
to-night you can tell me your decision, or rather we will discuss it
together. James," he added, turning to the footman, "tell Robert I want my
sixteen-bore guns put in the car, and tell him to be very careful about
the cartridges."

He disappeared through the French windows. Lady Ashleigh was studying the
letter stretched out before her, her brows a little knitted, her
expression distressed. Ella had turned and was looking out westwards
across the park, towards the sea. For a moment she dreamed of all