look. Oh, I quizzed
them unmercifully. They'd seen me jump off the pigsty roof, remember.'

'But what _was_ the subject of their remarks?' said Una.

'Oh, Dr. Break said it was a professional matter, so the laugh was
turned on me. I was horribly afraid it might have been something
unladylike and indelicate. But _that_ wasn't my triumph. Dad asked me to
play on the harp. Between just you and me, child, I had been practising
a new song from London--I don't always live in trees--for weeks; and I
gave it them for a surprise.'

'What was it?' said Una. 'Sing it.'

'"I have given my heart to a flower." Not very difficult fingering, but
r-r-ravishing sentiment.'

Philadelphia coughed and cleared her throat.

'I've a deep voice for my age and size,' she explained. 'Contralto, you
know, but it ought to be stronger,' and she began, her face all dark
against the last of the soft pink sunset:

'I have given my heart to a flower,
Though I know it is fading away,
Though I know it will live but an hour
And leave me to mourn its decay!

'Isn't that touchingly sweet? Then the last verse--I wish I had my harp,
dear--goes as low as my register will reach.' She drew in her chin, and
took a deep breath:

'Ye desolate whirlwinds that rave,
I charge you be good to my dear!
She is all--she is all that I have,
And the time of our parting is near!'

'Beautiful!' said Una. 'And did they like it?'

'Like it? They were overwhelmed--_accables_, as Rene says. My dear, if I
hadn't seen it, I shouldn't have believed that I could have drawn
tears, genuine tears, to the eyes of four grown men. But I did! Rene
simply couldn't endure it! He's all French sensibility. He hid his face
and said, "_Assez Mademoiselle! C'est plus fort que moi! Assez!_" And
Sir Arthur blew his nose and said, "Good Ged! This is worse than
Assaye!" While Dad sat with the tears simply running down his cheeks.'

'And what did Dr. Break do?'

'He got up and pretended to look out of the window, but I saw his little
fat shoulders jerk as if he had the hiccoughs. That _was_ a triumph. I
never suspected him of sensibility.'

'Oh, I wish I'd seen! I wish I'd been you,' said Una, clasping her
hands. Puck rustled and rose from the fern, just as a big blundering
cockchafer flew smack against Una's cheek.

When she had finished rubbing the place, Mrs. Vincey called to her that
_Pansy_ had been fractious, or she would have come long before t