concert a great success?" she asked.

"Vanya has not yet returned." She shrugged. "There was nothing in New
York papers."

"I suppose you were very nervous last night," said Palla.

For a moment Marya continued to arrange her hair by the aid of the
mantel mirror, then she turned very lithely and let her green gaze
rest full on Palla's face.

What she might possibly have divined was hidden behind the steady
brown eyes that met hers may have determined her attitude and words;
for she laughed with frank carelessness and plunged into it all:

"Fancy, Palla, my encountering Jim Shotwell in the Biltmore, and
dining with him at that noisy Palace of Mirrors last night! Did he
tell you?"

"I haven't seen him."

"--Over the telephone, perhaps?"

"No, he did not mention it."

"Well, it was most amusing. It is the unpremeditated that is
delightful. And can you see us in that dreadful place, as gay as a
pair of school children? And we must laugh at nothing and find it
enchanting--and we must dance amid the hoi polloi and clap our hands
for the encore too!----"

A light peal of laughter floated from her lips at the recollections
evoked:

"And after! Can you see us, Palla, in Vanya's studio, too wide awake
to go our ways!--and the song I sang at that unearthly hour--the song
I sing always when happily excited----"

The bell rang; the first guest had arrived.

CHAPTER XIX

Vanya's concert had been enough of a success to attract the
attention of genuine music-lovers and an impecunious impresario--an
irresponsible promoter celebrated for rushing headlong into things
and being kicked headlong out of them.

All promising virtuosi had cut their wisdom teeth on him; all had
acquired experience and its accompanying toothache; none had acquired
wealth until free of this ubiquitous impresario.

His name was Wilding: he seized upon Vanya; and that gentle and
disconcerted dreamer offered no resistance.

So Wilding began to haunt Vanya's apartment at all hours of the day,
rushing in with characteristic enthusiasm to discuss the vast campaign
of nation-wide concerts which in his mind's eye were already
materialising.

Marya had no faith in him and was becoming very tired of his noise and
bustle in the stillness and subdued light which meant home to her, and
which this loud, excitable, untidy man was eternally invading.

Always he was shouting at Vanya: "It's a knock-out! It will go big!
big! big! We got 'em start