after a girl of that name. He used to be
making red-hot love to her. Young Andrew there saw him up the lane by
Bray's with his arm round her waist, mugging her for dear life, and
then he'd come over here and want to kiss me! If he had seen me up a
lane hugging the baker, I wonder would he want me then!" Dawn's tone
approached tears, for thus are sensitive maiden hearts outraged by an
inconsistent double standard of propriety and its consequences, great
and small.

"Grandma says that's nothing if it's not worse, for that's the way of
men, but I'd rather have some one who hadn't done it so plainly right
under my nose; people wouldn't be able to poke it at me then. I've got
him warded off proposing, and while I guard against that it's all
right. Now, this is why I'd like to be on the stage. I'd love to have
been born rich and have lovely dresses, and I'm sure I could hold
receptions and go to balls, and the stage would be next best to
reality."

"But why not marry some one who could give you these things?"

"Where would I find him? You may bet that's the sort of man I'd like
to marry if I did marry at all," and the dullest observer could have
seen she was heart-whole and fancy free. Certainly there would be a
difficulty in procuring that brand of eligible. There was but a
limited supply of him on the market, and that was generally
confiscated to the use of imported actresses, and, could society
journals be relied upon, it was the same in England; so Dawn showed
good instinct in wanting to bring herself into more equal competition
with the winners.

"Can you sing?"

"I've never been trained," she said, but at my request went to the
piano in the next room and gave vent to a strong, clear mezzo. It was
a good voice--undoubtedly so. There are many such to be heard all over
Australia--girls singing at country concerts without instruction, or
the ignorant instruction more injurious than helpful. These voices are
marred to the practised ear by the style of production, which in a
year or two leaves them cracked and awful. This widespread lack of
voice preservation is the result of a want of public musical training.
With all the training in Paris, Dawn would never have been a Dolores
or Calve, but with other ability she had sufficient voice to make a
success in comic opera or in concerts as second fiddle to a star
soprano.

"You must sing again for me," I said, "and I'll discover whether you
have any ability." For the way