she drew him out, listened attentively to all he chose to
say, and evidently wanted him to say still more. He told a college
friend that he knew he was in love now; he really was, for he liked Miss
Allaby's society much better than that of his sisters.

Over and above the recommendations already enumerated, she had another in
the possession of what was supposed to be a very beautiful contralto
voice. Her voice was certainly contralto, for she could not reach higher
than D in the treble; its only defect was that it did not go
correspondingly low in the bass: in those days, however, a contralto
voice was understood to include even a soprano if the soprano could not
reach soprano notes, and it was not necessary that it should have the
quality which we now assign to contralto. What her voice wanted in range
and power was made up in the feeling with which she sang. She had
transposed "Angels ever bright and fair" into a lower key, so as to make
it suit her voice, thus proving, as her mamma said, that she had a
thorough knowledge of the laws of harmony; not only did she do this, but
at every pause added an embellishment of arpeggios from one end to the
other of the keyboard, on a principle which her governess had taught her;
she thus added life and interest to an air which everyone--so she
said--must feel to be rather heavy in the form in which Handel left it.
As for her governess, she indeed had been a rarely accomplished musician:
she was a pupil of the famous Dr Clarke of Cambridge, and used to play
the overture to _Atalanta_, arranged by Mazzinghi. Nevertheless, it was
some time before Theobald could bring his courage to the sticking point
of actually proposing. He made it quite clear that he believed himself
to be much smitten, but month after month went by, during which there was
still so much hope in Theobald that Mr Allaby dared not discover that he
was able to do his duty for himself, and was getting impatient at the
number of half-guineas he was disbursing--and yet there was no proposal.
Christina's mother assured him that she was the best daughter in the
whole world, and would be a priceless treasure to the man who married
her. Theobald echoed Mrs Allaby's sentiments with warmth, but still,
though he visited the Rectory two or three times a week, besides coming
over on Sundays--he did not propose. "She is heart-whole yet, dear Mr
Pontifex," said Mrs Allaby, one day, "at least I believe she is. It is
not for