of the room.

"What is he up to, Mrs. Charmian?" asked Lake mystified.

"I don't know," she answered.

"Does he want to get rid of me? Is that why he was so keen to know
whether it was four weeks or a month?" said Lake, laughing.

"I am afraid that probably is it. But come up and see the flowers I've
put in your room."

"This is a little Paradise," said Lake, in his ringing baritone voice.
"Sometimes this winter in Paris, when I was all in, don't you know--"

"All in?"

"Blues."

"Oh, yes!"

"I'd think of Djenan-el-Maqui, and wish I was a composer instead of a
singer--for a fifth of a minute."

"Oh!" she said reproachfully. "Only a fifth!"

"I know. It wasn't long. But you see I'm born to sing, so I'm bound to
love it more than anything else. Making a noise--oh, it's rare!"

He opened his mouth and ran up a scale to the high A.

"I can get there pretty well now, don't you think?"

"Splendid! Your voice gets bigger and bigger!" she said, with real
enthusiasm. "But it's almost--"

He stopped her.

"I know what you're going to say; but I shall always be a baritone. If
you knew as much as I do about baritones turned into tenors, you'd say,
'Leave it alone, my boy!' and that's what I'm going to do. Now what
about these flowers? It is good to be here."

Claude did not join Alston Lake in making holiday. Indeed, Charmian
noticed that he was working much harder than usual, as if Lake's coming
had been an incentive to him.

"I don't apologize to you, Alston," he said.

"Odd if you did when I was the first to try and set you on to an opera.
Besides, you can't get ahead too fast now. There's--"

He stopped.

"Crayford'll be over this summer," he remarked, giving a casual tone to
his voice.

"Ah!" said Claude.

And the conversation dropped.

Only in the early morning, and for an hour, or an hour and a half after
lunch, did Claude intermit his labors. In the morning the three of them
rode, on good horses hired from the Vitoz stables. After lunch they sat
in the little court of the fountain, smoked and talked. Conversation
never flagged when Alston was there. His young energy bred a desire for
expression in those about him. And Charmian and Claude were now his most
intimate friends. He identified himself with them in a charming way, was
devoted to their fortunes, and assumed, without a trace of conceit,
their devotion to his. When Claude, about three o'clock, got up and went
away to his workroom Alsto