, flexible voice! Surely, fishermen's wives are not singing
Mendelssohn's compositions? Did you hear that gush of melody? It
comes not from that house, but seems floating from the opposite
direction. Such strains almost revive one's faith in the Hindoo
_Gandharvas_,--musical genii, filling the air with ravishing sounds.
There! is it not exquisite? Hold these reins while I ascertain who
owns that marvellous voice."

Eager and curious as a boy, he sprang from the buggy, and, following
the bend of the beach, passed two small deserted huts, and plunged
into a grove of stunted trees, whence issued the sound that attracted
his attention. Ere he had proceeded many yards he saw a woman sitting
on a bank of sand and oyster-shells, and singing from an open sheet of
music, while she made rapid gestures with one hand. Her face was
turned from him, but, as he cautiously approached, the _pose_ of the
figure, the noble contour of the head and neck, and a certain muslin
dress which matched the strip in his pocket, made his heart beat
violently. Intent only on solving the mystery, he stepped softly
towards her; but just then a brace of plover started up at his feet,
and, as they whirred away, the woman turned her head, and he found
himself face to face with his musician.

"Salome!"

"Well, Dr. Grey."

She had risen, and a beautiful glow overspread her cheeks, as she met
his eyes.

"What brings you to this lonely spot, three miles from home, when the
sun has already gone down?"

"Have I not as unquestionable a right to walk alone to the seaside as
you to drive your ward whithersoever you list? Poverty, as well as
wealth, sometimes makes people strangely independent. What have you
done with Miss Muriel Manton?"

There was such a sparkle in her eyes, such a bright flush on her
polished cheeks and parted lips, that Dr. Grey wondered at her beauty,
which had never before impressed him as so extraordinary.

"Salome, why have you concealed your musical gift from me? Who taught
you to sing?"

"I am teaching myself, with such poor aid as I can obtain from that
miserable vagabond, Barilli, who is generally intoxicated three days
out of every six. Did you expect to find Heine's yellow-haired
Loreley, or a treacherous Ligeia, sitting on a rock, wooing passers-by
to speedy destruction?"

"I certainly did not expect to meet my friend Salome alone at this
hour and place. Child, do not trifle with me,--be truthful. Did you
come here to m