of excitement was now fully explained, and she could
give herself up freely to the enjoyment of this new phase in their
friendship, for the hours of music together were a very real delight.
Garth was more of a musician than she had known, and she enjoyed his
clean, masculine touch on the piano, unblurred by slur or pedal; more
delicate than her own, where delicacy was required. What her voice was
to him during those wonderful hours he did not express in words, for
after that first evening he put a firm restraint upon his speech. Under
the oaks he had made up his mind to wait a week before speaking, and he
waited.

But the new and strangely sweet experience to Jane was that of being
absolutely first to some one. In ways known only to himself and to her
Garth made her feel this. There was nothing for any one else to notice,
and yet she knew perfectly well that she never came into the room
without his being instantly conscious that she was there; that she
never left a room, without being at once missed by him. His attentions
were so unobtrusive and tactful that no one else realised them. They
called forth no chaff from friends and no "Hoity-toity! What now?" from
the duchess. And yet his devotion seemed always surrounding her. For
the first time in her life Jane was made to feel herself FIRST in the
whole thought of another. It made him seem strangely her own. She took
a pleasure and pride in all he said, and did, and was; and in the hours
they spent together in the music-room she learned to know him and to
understand that enthusiastic beauty-loving, irresponsible nature, as
she had never understood it before.

The days were golden, and the parting at night was sweet, because it
gave an added zest to the pleasure of meeting in the morning. And yet
during these golden days the thought of love, in the ordinary sense of
the word, never entered Jane's mind. Her ignorance in this matter
arose, not so much from inexperience, as from too large an experience
of the travesty of the real thing; an experience which hindered her
from recognising love itself, now that love in its most ideal form was
drawing near.

Jane had not come through a dozen seasons without receiving nearly a
dozen proposals of marriage. An heiress, independent of parents and
guardians, of good blood and lineage, a few proposals of a certain type
were inevitable. Middle-aged men--becoming bald and grey; tired of
racketing about town; with beautiful old country