nd full of polite information;
and ah, his music! When he is playing I am completely carried away. If
he said then, 'Miss Fullerton, may I have the pleasure of your society
in the infernal regions?' I should arise and take his arm and reply,
'Delighted,' and off we would march. But what am I saying? Mr. Temperley
would never ask anything so absurd.

"You would have thought that when Miss Du Prel and Professor Fortescue
arrived on the scene, I had about enough privileges; but no, Destiny,
waking up at last to her duties, remembers that I have a maniacal
passion for music, and that this has been starved. So she hastens to
provide for me a fellow maniac, a brother in Beethoven, who comes and
fills my world with music and my soul with----But I must not rave. The
music is still in my veins; I am not in a fit state to write reasonable
letters. Here comes Mr. Temperley for our practice. No more for the
present."

Temperley would often talk to Hadria of his early life, and about his
mother and sister. Of his mother he spoke with great respect and
affection, the respect perhaps somewhat conventional, and allowing one
to see, through its meshes, the simple fact that she was looked up to as
a good and dutiful parent, who had worshipped her son from his birth,
and perfectly fulfilled his ideas of feminine excellency. From her he
had learnt the lesser Catechism and the Lord's Prayer, since discarded,
but useful in their proper season. Although he had ceased to be an
orthodox Christian, he felt that he was the better for having been
trained in that creed. He had a perfect faith in the system which had
produced himself.

"I think you would like my mother," said Temperley.

Hadria could scarcely dispute this.

"And I am sure she would like you."

"On that point I cannot offer an opinion."

"Don't you ever come to town?" he asked.

"We go to Edinburgh occasionally," she replied with malice, knowing that
he meant London.

He set her right.

"No; my father hates London, and mother never goes away without him."

"What a pity! But do you never visit friends in town?"

"Yes; my sister and I have spent one or two seasons in Park Lane, with
some cousins."

"Why don't you come this next season? You ought to hear some good
music."

The _tete-a-tete_ was interrupted by the Professor. Temperley looked
annoyed. It struck Hadria that Professor Fortescue had a very sad
expression when he was not speaking. He seemed to her lonely, a