entle boasting about her
daughter's talents. She told everybody that she liked girls to have
careers, and that parents ought to make every effort to let a gifted
child have a chance. In Lorraine's estimation Rosemary's future was to
be one round of triumph, ending possibly in a peal of wedding bells.
Lorraine was fond of making up romances, and had evolved a
highly-satisfactory hero for her sister. He was always tall, but his
eyes varied in colour, and he sometimes had a moustache and sometimes
was clean-shaven. Though his personal appearance varied from day to day,
his general qualities persisted, and he invariably possessed a
shooting-box in Scotland, where he would be prepared to extend a warm
welcome to his bride's younger sister.

Meantime, though Rosemary had been a whole term at the college, her
family had no means of judging her progress. She had diligently
practised scales, exercises and arpeggios, but had steadfastly refused
to sing any songs to them. Vainly they had begged for old favourites;
she was obdurate to the point of obstinacy.

"Signor Arezzo doesn't want me to! I'm studying on his special method,
and he's most particular about it. He keeps everybody at exercises for
the first term. When I go back he says perhaps he'll let me have just
_one_ song."

"But surely it couldn't spoil your voice to sing 'My Happy Garden'?"
demanded her father, much disappointed.

"He forbade it _entirely_!" declared Rosemary emphatically.

This new attitude of Rosemary's of hiding her light under a bushel was
trying to Lorraine. She had been looking forward to showing off her
clever musical sister to Morland. She had expected the two to become
chums at once, but they did nothing of the sort. Rosemary treated
Morland with the airy patronage that a girl, who has just begun to mix
with older men, sometimes metes out to a boy of seventeen. She was not
nearly as much impressed by his playing as Lorraine had anticipated.

"He ought to learn from Signor Rassuli!" she commented. "Nobody who
hasn't studied on _his_ method can possibly have a touch!"

"But Morland's exquisite touch is his great point!" persisted Lorraine
indignantly.

"I can't stand the boy!" yawned Rosemary.

It is always most amazing, when we like a person exceedingly ourselves,
to find that somebody else has formed a different opinion. With all his
shortcomings, Lorraine appreciated Morland. He often missed his
appointments, and was generally late for