And yet," he said, "Jock, though
you and I consider ourselves his superiors, that is the fellow that will
carry off the prize. Beauty and genius are for him. He must have the
best that humanity can produce. You ought to be too young to have any
feeling on the subject; but it is a humiliating thought."

"Bice will have nothing to say to him," said Jock, with straightforward
application of the abstract description; but MTutor shook his head.

"How can we tell the persecutions to which Woman is subject?" he said.
"You and I, Jock, are in a very different position. But we should try to
realise, though it is difficult, those dangers to which she is subject.
Kept indoors," said MTutor, with pathos in his voice, "debarred from all
knowledge of the world, with all the authorities about her leading one
way. How can we tell what is said to her? with a host of petty maxims
preaching down a daughter's heart--strange!" cried Mr. Derwentwater,
with a closer pressure of the boy's arm, "that the most lovely existence
should thus continually be led to link itself with the basest. We must
not blame Woman; we must keep her idea sacred, whatever happens in our
own experience."

"It always sets one right to talk to you," cried Jock, full of emotion.
"I was a beast to say that."

"My boy, don't you think I understand the disturbance in your mind?"
with a sigh, MTutor said.

They had left the drawing-room during the course of this conversation,
and were crossing the hall on the way to the library, when some one
suddenly drew back with a startled movement from the passage which led
to Sir Tom's den. Then there followed a laugh, and "Oh, is it only you!"
after which there came forth a slim shadow, as unlike as possible to the
siren of the previous night. "We have met before, and I don't mind. Is
there any one else coming?" Bice said.

"Why do you hide and skulk in corners?" cried Jock. "Why shouldn't you
meet any one? Have you done something wrong?"

This made Bice laugh still more. "You don't understand," she said.

"Signorina," said Mr. Derwentwater (who was somewhat proud of having
remembered this good abstract title to give to the mysterious girl), "I
am going away to-morrow, and perhaps I shall never hear you again. Your
voice seemed to open the heavenly gates. Why, since you are so good as
to consider us different from the others, won't you sing to us once
more?"

"Sing?" said Bice, with a little surprise; "but by myself my voic