ly adjusting his consciousness to the fact that
the girl at the piano was not the girl whom he had seen at Boston and
whom he had so rashly and romantically decided to be Miss Phyllis
Desmond. The pianist was indeed Miss Desmond, but to no purpose, if the
violinist was some one else; it availed as little that the violinist was
the illusion that had lured him to Lower Merritt in pursuit of Miss
Desmond's piano, if she were really Miss Axewright of South Newton.

What remained for him to do was to arrange for his departure by the
first train in the morning; and he was subjectively accounting to the
landlord for his abrupt change of mind after he had engaged his room for
a week, while he was intent with all his upper faculties upon the
graceful poses and movements of Miss Axewright. There was something so
appealing in the pressure of her soft chin as it held the violin in
place against her round, girlish throat that Gaites felt a lump in his
own larger than his Adam's-apple would account for to the spectator; the
delicately arched wrist of the hand that held the bow, and the
rhythmical curve and flow of her arm in playing, were means of the spell
which wove itself about him, and left him, as it were, bound hand and
foot. It was in this helpless condition that he rose at the urgence of a
friendly young fellow who had chosen himself master of ceremonies, and
took part in the dancing; and at the end of the first half of the
programme, while the other dancers streamed out on the verandas and
thronged the stairways, he was aware of dangling his chains as he
lounged toward the ladies of the orchestra. The volunteer master of
ceremonies had half shut himself across the piano in his eager talk with
Miss Desmond, and he readily relinquished Miss Axewright to Gaites, who
willingly devoted himself to her, after Miss Desmond had risen in
acknowledgment of his bow. He had then perceived that she was not nearly
so tall as she had seemed when seated; and a woman who sat tall and
stood low was as much his aversion as if his own abnormally long legs
did not render him guilty of the opposite offence.

Miss Desmond must have had other qualities and characteristics, but in
his absorption with Miss Axewright's he did not notice them. He saw
again the pretty, pathetic face, the gentle brown eyes, the ordinary
brown hair, the sentient hands, the slight, graceful figure, the whole
undistinguished, unpretentious presence, which had taken his fancy