room in that hurry of hope and satisfaction once common enough
to him, but of which he had shown little during the past winter.
Denasia looked up from her writing with a smile, to meet his smile.

"Denasia," he cried impulsively, "what do you think? We are going to
America! The United States is the place for me. How soon can you be
ready?"

"But, Roland? What?"

"It is true, dear. Whom are you writing to?"

"I was writing to Mr. Harrison and to madame. I want to know if they
are going to Broadstairs this summer, for where they go I wish to go
also; that is, if they can give me lessons."

"A waste of money, Denasia. I have had a long talk with some of the
men who are here with the American company. Splendid fellows! They
tell me that my Shakespearian ideas will set New York agog. New
Yorkers give every one a fair hearing; at least 'there's nothing beats
a trial!' That is a New York motto, and these people are sure I would
have a fair trial there. And the country is so big! So big, Denasia,
that the parts you know will last you for years. There is not a bit of
need for you to study new songs and dances. Sing the old ones in new
places. Why, you may travel thousands of miles in all directions--big
cities everywhere, little ones scattered thick as blackberries on all
the railroad routes, and railroad routes are spread like spider-webs
all over the United States! That is the country for us! New York first
of all, then Chicago, St. Louis, Salt Lake, San Francisco, New
Orleans--oh, hundreds of cities! And money, my dear! Money for the
picking up--that is, for the singing for."

"I do not believe a word of it, Roland. It is all talk. I am going to
Broadstairs to spend the summer in study."

Roland looked a moment at the handsome, resolute woman who had resumed
her writing, and he wondered how this Denasia had sprung from the
sweetly obedient little maid he had once manipulated to his will with
a look or a word. However, he could not spare her. It was not only her
earnings he required; her beauty and talent gave him a kind of
reflected importance, and he expected great things from their united
efforts in the wonderful new world of which he had just begun to
think.

So he set himself to win what it was evident he could not command,
and, Denasia's womanly instincts being stronger than her artistic
instincts, the husband conquered. The sweet words and kisses, the
frank acknowledgment of his faults, the declaration that hi