old clergyman with a broken leg and his inconvenient daughter
suddenly quartered upon you for an unlimited period of time."

The record of the following weeks was very full, but almost entirely
concerned--brief mention of other things, such as her father's health
excepted--with full and accurate notes and descriptions of the aerophone
experiments. To Morris reading them it was wonderful, especially as
Stella had received no training in the science of electricity, that
she could have grasped the subject thus thoroughly in so short a time.
Evidently she must have had a considerable aptitude for its theory and
practice, as might be seen by the study that she gave to the literature
which he lent her, including some manuscript volumes of his own notes.
Also there were other entries. Thus:

"To-day Mr. Stephen Layard proposed to me in the Dead Church. I had seen
it coming for the last three weeks and wished to avoid it, but he would
not take a hint. I am most sorry, as I really think he cares about
me--for the while--which is very kind of him. But it is out of the
question, and I had to say no. Indeed, he repels me. I do not even
like being in the same room with him, although no doubt this is very
fastidious and wrong of me. I hope that he will get over it soon; in
fact, although he seemed distressed, I am not vain enough to suppose
that it will be otherwise. . . .

"Of course, my father is angry, for reasons which I need not set down.
This I expected, but he said some things which I wish he had left
unsaid, for they made me answer him as I ought not to have done. Fathers
and daughters look at marriage from such different standpoints; what is
excellent in their eyes may be as bad as death, or in some cases worse
to the woman who of course must pay the price. . . .

"I sang and played my best last night, my very, very best; indeed, I
don't think I ever did so well before, and perhaps never shall again. He
was moved--more moved than I meant him to be, and I was moved myself.
I suppose that it was the surroundings; that old chapel--how well those
monks understood acoustic properties--the moonlight, the upset to my
nerves this afternoon, my fear that he believed that I had accepted Mr.
L. (imagine his believing that! I thought better of him, and he _did_
believe it)--everything put together.

"While I was singing he told me that he was going away--to see Miss
Porson at Beaulieu, I suppose. When I had finished--oh! how tired