us!"

"I can," said Jim. "In fact I was going to keep that as a surprise,
but I have saved enough money this summer to go to New York and be
near you and with Aunt Betty when you play for the first time under
this new contract."

"Jim," Dorothy said, "you are just as thoughtful and kind as you can
be and it will be so nice to have you with Aunt Betty, and I shall
play all the better for knowing that out in the big, big audience
there are you two whom I really care to please more than anyone else
in the wide, wide world. Jim, every one is so good to me and so kind
in all things. Oh, dear, oh, dear; do you really suppose that I will
be a very great violinist?"

"Why Dorothy Calvert!" Jim reproached. "You funny girl. You are a
great violinist already, and in time you will be a very, very great
violinist perhaps--who knows but what you might be the most famous
violinist in the world? Why, Herr Deichenberg thinks you are doing
very wonderfully now, and you will practice just the same even if you
are going on a concert tour. In fact you will have to practice
harder----"

"Oh, Jim, I must do my very best all the time and you can trust me to
do that. But, come, let's go inside now. It's getting dark and Aunt
Betty will soon be back."

But the boy did not move, and finally said: "You stay here and finish
telling me your plans and then we will go in."

So Dorothy reseated herself and told Jim how Mr. Ludlow would tell her
when she got to New York her future plans and that now all that he had
written was for her to get ready for her trip, and on Tuesday, the
27th of September, for her and her Aunt Betty to be in New York.

"To think, Jim," said Dorothy, "that my one ambition in life has
commenced to be realized. I have always longed for this day to come
when I could really play to people, and now to be in a company with
so many other artists and to tour all over. There are so many, many
people who can play the violin better than I can, and for me to be
chosen!"

"Dorothy, girl, it was because you worked so very, very hard, and as
Herr Deichenberg, you know says, 'You have, mine girl, accomplished
the impossible,' and now we are all so proud of you," Jim gladly
responded.

"I tried so hard and all for dear, darling Aunt Betty, and she has
been so good to me and to you and to everybody, no wonder everyone
loves her," added Dorothy.

"Jim, I am worried about Aunt Betty. You know how she lost so much
money last year i