took humbly any censure upon herself, she would not
hear a syllable insinuated against Maltravers. When, in a very natural
indignation, Mrs. Leslie denounced him as a destroyer of innocence--for
Mrs. Leslie could not learn all that extenuated his offence--Alice
started up with flashing eyes and heaving heart, and would have hurried
from the only shelter she had in the wide world--she would sooner have
died--she would sooner even have seen her child die, than done that
idol of her soul, who, in her eyes, stood alone on some pinnacle between
earth and heaven, the wrong of hearing him reviled. With difficulty Mrs.
Leslie could restrain, with still more difficulty could she pacify and
soothe her; and for the girl's petulance, which others might have deemed
insolent or ungrateful, the woman-heart of Mrs. Leslie loved her all
the better. The more she saw of Alice, and the more she comprehended her
story and her character, the more was she lost in wonder at the romance
of which this beautiful child had been the heroine, and the more
perplexed she was as to Alice's future prospects.

At length, however, when she became acquainted with Alice's musical
acquirements, which were, indeed, of no common order, a light broke in
upon her. Here was the source of her future independence. Maltravers, it
will be remembered, was a musician of consummate skill as well as taste,
and Alice's natural talent for the art had advanced her, in the space
of months, to a degree of perfection which it cost others--which it had
cost even the quick Maltravers--years to obtain. But we learn so rapidly
when our teachers are those we love: and it may be observed that the
less our knowledge, the less perhaps our genius in other things, the
more facile are our attainments in music, which is a very jealous
mistress of the mind. Mrs. Leslie resolved to have her perfected in this
art, and so enable her to become a teacher to others. In the town of
C------, about thirty miles from Mrs. Leslie's house, though in the same
county, there was no inconsiderable circle of wealthy and intelligent
persons; for it was a cathedral town, and the resident clergy drew
around them a kind of provincial aristocracy. Here, as in most rural
towns in England, music was much cultivated, both among the higher
and middle classes. There were amateur concerts, and glee-clubs, and
subscriptions for sacred music; and once every five years there was the
great C------ Festival. In this town