, while I go and make my toilette."

Repairing to the humble bedroom, which was really the only space
allotted to her--or, rather, that she allotted to herself--she changed
her morning-wrapper for a sacque of pale blue, and twisted a ribbon to
match it in her fair hair. As she was descending again to the
drawing-room, she heard her brother William's voice.

"I have concluded the business about the removal to King Street, and we
must make the move as soon as possible."

"Now--at once?"

"Yes; the garden slopes well to the river. There will be a magnificent
sky-line, and room for the great venture. The casting of the great
thirty-foot----"

"Yes, William--yes; but the people are arriving, and you must be in your
place downstairs."

Then Mr. Herschel, with the marvellous power of self-control which
distinguished him, laid aside the astronomer and became the musician,
playing a solo on the harpsichord to a delighted audience; and then
accompanying his sister in the difficult songs in "Judas Maccabaeus,"
which hitherto only the beautiful Miss Linley had attempted in Bath
society.

In one of the pauses in the performance the door opened, and Alex
Herschel went forward to meet Lady Betty Longueville and Miss
Mainwaring. He presented them to his brother and sister; and Lady Betty
passed smiling and bowing up the room, while Griselda moved behind her
with stately grace and dignity.

But Lady Betty was not the greatest lady in the company; for the
Marchioness of Lothian was present, and was making much of Miss
Herschel, and complimenting her on the excellence, not only of her
singing, but of her pronunciation of English. The huge Lady Cremorne was
also amongst the audience, and flattered the performers; and Lady Betty,
wishing to be in the fashion, began to talk of the music as "ravishing,"
and especially that "dear, delicious violoncello" of Mr. Herschel's.

Mr. Travers had some difficulty in keeping his place in the trio which
he played with the two Herschels, so attracted was he by the face of the
rapt listener who sat opposite him, drinking in the strains of those
wonderful instruments, which, under skilful hands, wake the soul's
melodies as nothing else has the power to wake them.

They called Miss Linley "Saint Cecilia." Mr. Travers thought "sure
there never was one more like a saint than she who is here to-day." It
was a dream of bliss to him, till a dark shadow awoke him to the reality
of a hated presence.