to the patriarchal habits of their race, the former still
guided and determined their daughter's mode of life, as though she were
thirteen instead of thirty. Dove was obliged to be of the utmost
circumspection in his behaviour; for the old couple, uprooted violently
from their native soil, lived in a mild but constant horror at the
iniquity of foreign ways. They held the profession of music to be an
unworthy one, and threw up their hands in dismay at the number of young
people here complacently devoting themselves to such a frivolous
object. It was necessary for Dove to prove to them that a student of
music might yet be a man of untarnished principles and blame less
honour. And he did not find the task a hard one; the whole bent of his
mind was towards sobriety. He frequented the American church with his
new friends on Sunday after noon; gave up skating on that day; went
with the old gentleman to Motets and Passions; and eschewed the opera.

But now, his ambition had been insidiously roused, and day by day it
grew stronger. If only the affair with Maurice had not been of so
unsavoury a nature! Did he, Dove, become seriously involved, it might
be difficult to prove to judges so severe as his future parents-in-law,
that he had acted out of pure goodness of heart. For, that he would be
embroiled, in other words, that he would have success in his mission,
there was no manner of doubt in his mind--a conviction he shared with
the generality of mankind: that it is only necessary for an offender's
eyes to be opened to the enormity of his wrongdoing, for him to be
reasonable and to renounce it.

While Dove hesitated thus, torn between his reputation on the one hand,
his missionary zeal on the other; while he hesitated, an incident
occurred, which acted as a kind of moral fingerpost. In the
piano-class, one day, just as Dove was about to leave the room, Schwarz
asked him if he were not a friend of Herr Guest's. The latter had been
absent now from two lessons in succession. Was he ill? Did no one know
what had happened to him? Dove made light of the friendship, but
volunteered his services, and was bidden to make inquiries.

He went that afternoon.

Frau Krause looked a little gruffer than of old; and left him to find
his own way to Maurice's room. In accordance with the new state of
things, Dove knocked ceremoniously at the door. While his knuckles
still touched the wood, it was flung open, and he stood face to face
with Maur