few pounds in
my pocket, and a portmanteau full of music, which I soon found no one
wanted."

"You had written music before you had met father?"

"Yes, I was organist at St. Patrick's in Dublin for nearly three years.
There's no one like your father, Miss Innes."

"No one, is there?" she replied enthusiastically. "There's no one like
him. I'm so glad you are friends. You see him nearly every day, and you
show him all your music." Then after a pause, she said, "Tell me, did he
miss me very much?"

"Yes, he missed you, of course. But he felt that you were not wholly to
blame."

"And you took my place. I can see it all. It was father and son,
instead of father and daughter. How well you must have got on together.
What talks you must have had."

The silence was confidential, and though they both were thinking of Mr.
Innes, they seemed to become intimately aware of each other.

"But may I venture to advise you?"

"Yes. What?"

"I'm sure you ought to go and see him, or at least write to him saying
you'd like to see him."

"I know--I know--I must go. He'll forgive me; he must forgive me. But I
wish it were over. I'm afraid you think me very cowardly. You will not
say you have seen me. You promise me to say nothing."

Ulick gave her the required promise, and she asked him again to come to
see her.

"I want you," she said, "to go through Isolde's music with me."

"Do you think I can tell you anything about the music you don't know
already?"

"Yes, I think you can. You tell me things about myself that I did not
know. I hardly knew that I acted as you describe in Margaret. I hope I
did, for I seemed very good in your article. I read it over again this
morning in bed. But tell me, did father come?"

"You must not press me to answer that question. My advice to you is to
go and see your father. He will tell you what he thought of your singing
if he came here.... The act is over," he said suddenly, and he seemed
glad of the interruption. "I wonder what your Elizabeth will be like?"

"What do you think?"

"You're a clever woman; you will no doubt arrive at a very logical and
clear conception of the part, but--"

"But we cannot act what is not in us. Is that what you were going to
say?"

"Something like that."

"You think I shall arrive at a logical and clear conception. Is that the
way you think I arrived at my Margaret? Did it look like that? I may
play the part of Elizabeth badly, but I sha'n't play it as