said Hilda.

"You'll do no such thing!" Mrs. Orgreave announced, sharply. "Alicia,
I'm surprised at you! Here Janet and Hilda have been out since noon, and
you--"

"And so on and so on," said Alicia, jumping up from the piano in
obedience.

"We didn't wait supper," Mrs. Orgreave went on. "But I told Martha to
leave--"

"Mother, dearest," Janet stopped her. "Please don't mention food. We've
stuffed ourselves, haven't we, Hilda? Anyone been?"

"Swetnam," said Alicia, as she left the room with her arms full.

"_Mr_. Swetnam," corrected Mrs. Orgreave.

"Which one? The Ineffable?"

"The Ineffable," replied Mr. Orgreave, who had wandered, smiling
enigmatically, to the sofa. His legs, like the whole of his person, had
a distinguished air; and he held up first one slippered foot and then
the other to the silent, sham-ecstatic inspection of the girls. "He may
look in again, later on. It's evidently Hilda he wants to see." This
said, Mr. Orgreave lazily sank into an easy chair, opposite the sofa,
and lighted a cigarette. He was one of the most industrious men in the
Five Towns, and assuredly the most industrious architect; but into an
idle hour he could pack more indolence than even Johnnie and Jimmie,
alleged wastrels, could accomplish in a week.

"I say, Janet," Tom sang out from the piano, "you aren't really
exhausted, are you?"

"I'm getting better."

"Well, let's dash through the scherzo before the infant comes back. She
can't take it half fast enough."

"And do you think I can?" said Janet, rising. In theory, Janet was not a
pianist, and she never played solos, nor accompanied songs; but in the
actual practice of duet-playing her sympathetic presence of mind at
difficult crises of the music caused her to be esteemed by Tom, the
expert and enthusiast, as superior to all other performers in the
family.

II

Hilda listened with pleasure and with exaltation to the scherzo. Beyond
a little part-singing at school she had no practical acquaintance with
music; there had never been a piano at home. But she knew that this
music was Beethoven's; and from the mere intonation of that name, as it
was uttered in her presence in the house of the Orgreaves, she was aware
of its greatness, and the religious faculty in her had enabled her at
once to accept its supremacy as an article of genuine belief; so that,
though she understood it not, she felt it, and was uplifted by it.
Whenever she heard Beethoven--and she heard