'If you wish, I will play to you now.'

"I felt as if it were not I myself, but some one outside me that was
moving and speaking for me. I wished not to do it, but I was compelled
by my brother's force of will, as much as if I had been hypnotised.

"'Do, dear, do!' the old lady exclaimed kindly and eagerly. 'I am so
fond of music, we both are, and we rarely have any one here who can
play.'

"I chose a piece in which I could give vent to the stormy feelings
raging within me. When I had finished I rose from the piano.

"'Thank you, dear,' she exclaimed. 'That was a treat!'

"'Such a treat,' remarked my brother, 'that it is hard to understand the
discourtesy and want of amiability that have deprived us of it so long.
Play something else, Elfie!' This was said quietly, but I was as
powerless to resist as if it were the sternest command.

"So I played three or four more pieces at his request, and then getting
up, took my work and sat down in silence at some distance from them,
while they 'talked music' In about half an hour he turned to me again
and asked me to play a particular piece which they had been discussing.
'Perhaps she is tired,' suggested Aunt Evangeline kindly.

"'It does not tire her to play for hours by herself,' was the quiet
rejoinder.

"I went to the piano in a mutinous, half desperate mood, thinking I
would go on till they were sick of it, so I played on and on. Presently
I forgot them, got lost in my music, and as usual my angry feelings died
away. I had no idea how long I had been playing when I became conscious
of a feeling of emotion I had never experienced before. I felt my heart
swell and my face flush, and with a sudden sob I burst into tears. I was
more startled than they were, for I had never, as far as I could
remember, shed a tear except with anger, and this was certainly not
anger. I started up and was about to leave the room hastily, when Tone
said in the same calm tone:

"Stay here, Elfie, you have no need to be ashamed of those tears.'

"At home I should have rushed from the room, banging the door after me:
I could give myself no account of my reason for going and sitting down
quietly instead; I did so, nevertheless, though I could not suppress my
sobs for some time. At last I became, outwardly at least, calm.

"Aunt Evangeline always retired to her room about nine o'clock, and at
first I did the same, but then my brother detained me for a game of
chess which he taught me to play,