ere
gone, and there stood my poor David, frowning at a music-rest so savagely
that I fancied he must be suffering from a bad headache, and expressed my
sympathy.

"'Headache? I haven't a headache,' he growled, stalking down stairs in
advance.

"I thought he needn't have felt so enraged if he hadn't, and walked on in
dumb dignity. Presently he observed testily that when he honored me with a
call in my citadel, it might be polite in me to introduce him to my
friends.

"I said I thought he knew the members of the choir--all, at least, but the
soprano.

"'Well, she's somebody, I suppose.'

"'I beg your pardon, Timothy,' I cried amazed. It didn't occur to me you'd
care to become acquainted with her. I didn't present you because I fancied
you'd consider the introduction a bore.'

"'You're sure of that, Hal?' he asked with a sort of fierce eagerness. You
haven't any personal motive for not wishing to extend Miss Sparrow's
circle of gentlemen friends?'

"I burst out laughing at the absurdity of the idea. It was but a week,
remember, since my own introduction to the young lady.

"Timothy drew a long breath, and straightway spent it in questions
concerning her:

Who was her father?
Who was her mother?
Had she a sister?
Had she a brother?

"I told him all I knew. Her father lived on State street; her mother lived
in heaven: sisters she had none, but of little brothers something less
than a score, who dogged her steps as persistently as the bass follows the
air. To escort her home from rehearsal was to lead the van of an infant
squadron, a running accompaniment which the night before had disturbed my
mental harmony.

"For, though I did not feel it necessary to enlarge on this point to
Timothy, I had conceived a prodigious fancy myself for the sweet little
soprano, and should have been glad to learn more of her and less of her
fraternal blessings. I afterward discovered why she surrounded herself
with these as with a garment. It was from pure compassion for her father.
He was a nervous invalid, and the proximity of those boys distracted him.
Of course it did: I could enter into the old gentleman's feelings
perfectly. It distracted me too. Don't smile, my dear fellow. The prancing
young ubiquities were well enough in their way, I'll admit: I only
objected to having them in mine.

"All that week my beloved Timothy seemed strangely preoccupied and
erratic, capping the climax Saturday evening by fi