d to look at her
bright face was to forget every disagreeable thing in the world. "You
know I have been thinking that I would give up instruction altogether,"
said he; "but I suppose that unless I actually go away to get rid of my
pupils, I shall have a few devoted followers to the last. The more you
take off my hands the better I shall like it."

"But how should everybody know that you _think_ of giving up
instruction?" Miss Marion inquired.

"Oh, I dare say I have told everybody," he answered carelessly.

"Ah!" said she; and two or three thoughts passed through the mind of the
young lady quite worthy the brain of her mother. "I am half sorry," she
continued. "But at least you cannot forget what you know. That is a
comfort. And I am sure you love music too well to let me go on
committing barbarisms with my hands or voice without telling me."

Leonhard hesitated. How far might he take this dear girl into his
secrets? "My friend Wilberforce is always saying that I ought to study
abroad in the old European towns before I launch out in earnest," said
he finally.

"As architect or musician?" asked the "dear girl."

"As architect, of course," he answered, without manifesting surprise at
the question. "He is going himself now, and he wants me to go with him."

"Why don't you go?" The quick look with which he followed this question
made Miss Marion add: "It would be the best thing in the world for--for
a student, I should think. You said once that your indecision was the
bane of your life. I beg your pardon for remembering it. When you have
heard the best music and seen the best architecture, you can put an end
to this 'thirty years' war,' and come back and settle down."

"All very well," said he, "but please to tell me where I shall find you
when I come home."

"Oh, I shall be jogging along somewhere, depend."

"With your mind made up concerning every event five years before it
happens? If you had my choice to make, you think, I suppose, that you
would decide in a minute which road to fame and fortune you would
choose." Mr. Leonhard used his cane as vehemently while he spoke as if
he were a conductor swinging his baton through the most exciting
movement.

"I don't understand your perplexity, that is the fact," said she with
wonderful candor; "but then I have been trained to do one thing from the
time I could wink."

"It was expected of me that I should rival the greatest performers,"
said Leonhard with a half-s