adaverous face, and long lank hair of Dr. Linton. The sight instantly
wrecked her world of composure. If it had not been for the fact that
Miss Clough was standing near, and nodding to her to begin, she would
have run away from the platform.

"Oh, the ill luck of it!" she thought. "If I had only played last time,
instead of Gertie, I'd have had it over before he came into the room! I
know he'll be just listening to every note, and criticizing!"

With a horrid feeling, as if her breath would not come properly, and her
head was slightly spinning, and her hands dithering, Ingred began her
"Nocturne," trying with a sort of "drowning" effort to keep her mind on
the music in front of her, instead of on the music-master at the other
end of the room. For sixteen bars she succeeded, then came the hitch.
She had rejected the offered services of Doris Grainger, and had elected
to turn over her own pages. She now made a hasty dash at the leaf, her
trembling hand was not sufficiently agile, the sheet slipped, she
grabbed in vain, and the music fluttered on to the floor. The
performance came to a dead halt. Doris and Miss Clough rushed to the
rescue, but they were put politely aside by a tall figure who stepped on
to the platform, and Dr. Linton himself picked up the scattered sheets
of the unfortunate "Nocturne." He arranged them together in order,
placed them upon the stand, and, addressing his dismayed pupil, said:

"Now, then, begin again, and _I_ shall turn over for you. Bring out that
_forte_ passage properly! Remember there's a pedal on the piano!"

It was like having a lesson in public. Ingred felt too scared to begin,
and yet she was too much afraid of her master to refuse, so the bigger
fright prevailed, and--as a cat will swim to escape an enemy--she dashed
at the "Nocturne." Once restarted, it went magnificently: afterwards,
she always declared that Dr. Linton must have hypnotized her, she was
sure her unaided efforts could never have rendered it in such style. He
behaved as if he were conducting an orchestra, soothing the _piano_
passages and spurring her on to _fortissimo_ efforts, even humming the
melody in his eccentric fashion, quite unmindful of the audience. The
enthusiastic applause at the end was so evidently for both master and
pupil that he bowed instinctively in response.

Ingred, remembering, now the ordeal was over, that she was nervous,
melted from the platform, and left him to receive the laurels. He di