here?"

"You are talking rather as father will talk," observed Michael.

"Am I? Well, I seem to be talking sense."

"You weren't doing what you seemed, then. I've got absolutely everything
to learn about the piano."

Francis rose.

"Then it is clear I don't understand anything about it," he said. "Nor,
I suppose, does Uncle Robert. But, really, I rather envy you, Mike.
Anyhow, you want to do and be something so much that you are gaily going
to face unpleasantnesses with Uncle Robert about it. Now, I wouldn't
face unpleasantnesses with anybody about anything I wanted to do, and I
suppose the reason must be that I don't want to do anything enough."

"The malady of not wanting," quoted Michael.

"Yes, I've got that malady. The ordinary things that one naturally does
are all so pleasant, and take all the time there is, that I don't want
anything particular, especially now that you've been such a brick--"

"Stop it," said Michael.

"Right; I got it in rather cleverly. I was saying that it must be rather
nice to want a thing so much that you'll go through a lot to get it.
Most fellows aren't like that."

"A good many fellows are jelly-fish," observed Michael.

"I suppose so. I'm one, you know. I drift and float. But I don't think I
sting. What are you doing to-night, by the way?"

"Playing the piano, I hope. Why?"

"Only that two fellows are dining with me, and I thought perhaps you
would come. Aunt Barbara sent me the ticket for a box at the Gaiety,
too, and we might look in there. Then there's a dance somewhere."

"Thanks very much, but I think I won't," said Michael. "I'm rather
looking forward to an evening alone."

"And that's an odd thing to look forward to," remarked Francis.

"Not when you want to play the piano. I shall have a chop here at eight,
and probably thump away till midnight."

Francis looked round for his hat and stick.

"I must go," he said. "I ought to have gone long ago, but I didn't want
to. The malady came in again. Most of the world have got it, you know,
Michael."

Michael rose and stood by his tall cousin.

"I think we English have got it," he said. "At least, the English you
and I know have got it. But I don't believe the Germans, for instance,
have. They're in deadly earnest about all sorts of things--music among
them, which is the point that concerns me. The music of the world is
German, you know!"

Francis demurred to this.

"Oh, I don't think so," he said. "This thin