ct to other folk's feelings who detested the sound. Music
accompanied by a good voice, or music like the band at Wiltshire's and
the Pump Room, was one thing, but dreary moans and groans on the
violoncello another.

"You were pleased with the music last evening, Mistress Mainwaring?" Mr.
Travers was saying.

"Yes; oh yes! Do you think, sir, Lady Betty and myself might venture to
pay our respects to Mr. and Miss Herschel?"

"Indeed, I feel sure they will be proud to receive your visit. To-morrow
afternoon there is a rehearsal and a reception in Rivers Street. I
myself hope to be present; and may I hope to have the honour of meeting
you there?"

"I will do my best, sir. But I am by no means an independent personage;
I am merely an appendage--a chattel, if you like the word better."

"Nay, I like neither word," the young man said; "they do not suit you.
But to return to the visit to-morrow. Could you not make it alone?"

Griselda shook her head, and then laughing, said:

"It depends on the temperature."

"But a chair is at your disposal. I can commend to you two steady men
who would convey you to Rivers Street."

But Griselda shook her head.

"I was not thinking of wind and weather, sir; but of the mood in which
my lady finds herself!"

A bright smile seemed to show that Griselda's point was understood.

"The Lady Betty is your aunt?"

"Hush, sir!--not that word. I am forbidden to call her 'aunt,' it smacks
of age and does not seem appropriate. I was Mr. Longueville's niece,
and, as I told you, I am a chattel left to Lady Betty for the term
of--well, my natural life, I suppose."

"Nay, that word might be well altered to the term of your unmarried
life, Mistress Griselda."

Griselda grew her calm, almost haughty, self at once, and her companion
hastened to say:

"You must see and know Mr. and Miss Herschel. Now, at this moment, while
all this gaiety goes on, they are in silence--their eyes, their thoughts
far away from all this folly and babble."

"Are they so wrapt in their production of music?" Griselda asked.

"I said they were at this moment engrossed in silence, for the music of
the spheres is beyond the hearing of mortal ears; it is towards this,
their whole being--brother and sister alike--is concentrated, at this
very moment, I will dare to say. Mr. Herschel and his sister lead a
double existence--the one in making music the power to uplift them
towards the grand aim of their lives, which is t