," was my answer. "We might haf plenty of times for a
little moosic, vhen das laties shall be pleaset to say so. I canst blay
Yankee Doodle, Hail Coloombias, and der 'Star Spangled Banner,' und all
dem airs, as dey so moch likes at der taverns and on der road."

Mr. Warren laughed, and he took the flute from my hand, and began to
examine it. I now trembled for the incognito! The instrument had been
mine for many years, and was a very capital one, with silver keys,
stops, and ornaments. What if Patt--what if my dear grandmother should
recognise it! I would have given the handsomest trinket in my uncle's
collection to get the flute back again into my own hands; but, before an
opportunity offered for that, it went from hand to hand, as the
instrument that had produced the charming sounds heard that morning,
until it reached those of Martha. The dear girl was thinking of the
jewelry, which, it will be remembered, was rich, and intended in part
for herself, and she passed the instrument on, saying, hurriedly,--

"See, dear grandmother, this is the flute which you pronounced the
sweetest toned of any you had ever heard!"

My grandmother took the flute, started, put her spectacles closer to her
eyes, examined the instrument, turned pale--for her cheeks still
retained a little of the colour of their youth--and then cast a glance
hurriedly and anxiously at me. I could see that she was pondering on
something profoundly in her most secret mind, for a minute or two.
Luckily the others were too much occupied with the box of the pedlar to
heed her movements. She walked slowly out of the door, almost brushing
me as she passed, and went into the hall. Here she turned, and, catching
my eye, she signed for me to join her. Obeying this signal, I followed,
until I was led into a little room, in one of the wings, that I well
remembered as a sort of private parlour attached to my grandmother's own
bed-room. To call it a _boudoir_ would be to caricature things, its
furniture being just that of the sort of room I have mentioned, or of a
plain, neat, comfortable, country parlour. Here my grandmother took her
seat on a sofa, for she trembled so she could not stand, and then she
turned to gaze at me wistfully, and with an anxiety it would be
difficult for me to describe.

"Do not keep me in suspense!" she said, almost awfully in tone and
manner, "am I right in my conjecture?"

"Dearest grandmother, you are!" I answered, in my natural voice.