f angels; a
tone mingling with her own, pure, thrilling, ecstatic; lifting her on
wings of lofty harmony, up, up,--far from earth and its uncertain
voices, nearer and ever nearer to where love and light and music were
blended in one calm blessedness. It never occurred to her to stop;
hardly even to wonder what it meant, or who was doing her this service
of heavenly comradeship. She played on and on, as she had never played
before; only dreading the end, when the spirit would leave her, and she
must sink to earth again, alone.

When the end did come, there was silence in the room. It was nearly
dark. Any form that she should see on turning round would needs be vague
and shadowy, yet she dreaded to turn; and she found herself saying
aloud, unconsciously:

"Oh! I thought I was in heaven!"

"I _knew_ I was!" said Jack Ferrers. "Oh, Hilda, how have you done it?
How was it possible for you to do it? My dear--"

He was stepping forward eagerly; but two voices cried out suddenly, one
in terror, it seemed, the other,--was it joy or pain? The girl at the
piano turned round; even in the dark, Jack knew instantly that it was
not his cousin. He looked helplessly towards the door, and there stood
another shadowy figure; what did it all mean? But now, after that pause
of an instant, this second figure came forward with outstretched arms.

"My dear, dearest old Jack! I have been listening; I could not speak at
first. Oh, welcome, dear old fellow! Welcome home a hundred thousand
times!"

Ah! now Jack knew where he was. This was the welcome he had thought of,
dreamed of, all the way home across the ocean. This was the surprise
that he had planned, and carried out so perfectly. This was Hilda
herself, in flesh and blood; his best friend, better than any sister
could be. These were her kind, tender eyes, this was her sweet, cordial
voice, in which you felt the heart beating true and steady,--all was
just as he had pictured it in many a lonely hour during the past two
years. Only,--only, who was it he had gone to heaven with just now? A
stranger!

Before his bewildered mind could grasp anything more, Hildegarde had put
out her hand, and caught the silent shape that was flitting past her
through the doorway.

"No!" she cried. "You shall not go! It is absurd for you two to pretend
to be strangers, after you have been playing together like that; absurd,
and you both know it. Bell, of course you know this is my cousin Jack,
whom I ha