ing for another foothold in life. Forget her, or the obligation
whispered on Rockhaven's wave-washed cliff, he could not and did not;
but in the hard grind of life and competition of wage-earning, love
plays only a minor part. Even less so with Winn than most, for he
distrusted all sentiment, even in himself.

Few have the scope to judge another from that person's own viewpoint of
needs and impulses; and Mona, untutored in the ways of man, was less
competent than many.

To her, the words "I love you" were a sacred obligation, far above all
selfish needs and vulgar money making and, like the glittering star of
fame, an inspiration.

It had been sweet to her in those summer days, but the real star of fame
was now rising in her horizon, and the lesser one slowly fading away.

She was fast losing her old timidity, and as each day she felt herself
gaining a better mastery over her violin, the darling wish of her new
ambition grew stronger.

And then another influence came to her aid, for phlegmatic Fritz, in
whose life the mechanical duty of each evening's playing and the
convivial hours with his cronies had measured his ambition, became
imbued with a broader one, and that to train his pupil for public
playing, and so, when thus fitted and launched in this new life under
his tuition, to pose as the discoverer of a genius. And more than that,
as her eyes began to work their spell upon him, the hope of love entered
his heart.

"Ah, Mees Hutton," he would say to her, when her lesson had been
rendered, "you haf der spirit, der soul of der blaying alretty yet, and
some day you haf him and der vorld vill listen entranced;" and his
little eyes would twinkle and rotund face glow with an enthusiasm that
was like wine to Mona.

And now another brand of fuel was added to the fire of her ambition, for
a great singer's appearance in the city was heralded in the press and
Jess, already warped into the world's ways of dress and amusement, took
Mona and her mother to hear this operatic star. They had already visited
most of the theatres, and though Mona had felt a constant dread of
meeting one, the sight of whose face she knew would seem like a knife
thrust, she was gradually overcoming that. At first a timid girl and
stranger to the city ways, her keen and ready observation of them had
made rapid change in her self-possession. Then, too, the difference in
her own and her mother's wardrobe had been a help, for Jess had spared
no mo