a kind boy, and carry Tommy into the hall for me. He will
screech so fearfully if he sees me walk away without him. He is so very
loving, dear bird!"

Silence under the cedar.

Most people were watching young Ronald, holding the stand as much at
arm's length as possible; while Tommy, keeping his balance wonderfully,
sidled up close to him, evidently making confidential remarks into
Ronnie's terrified ear. The duchess walked on before, quite satisfied
with the new turn events had taken.

One or two people were watching Jane.

"It is very brave of you," said Myra Ingleby, at length. "I would offer
to play your accompaniment, dear; but I can only manage Au clair de la
lune, and Three Blind Mice, with one finger."

"And I would offer to play your accompaniment, dear," said Garth
Dalmain, "if you were going to sing Lassen's Allerseelen, for I play
that quite beautifully with ten fingers! It is an education only to
hear the way I bring out the tolling of the cemetery chapel bell right
through the song. The poor thing with the bunch of purple heather can
never get away from it. Even in the grand crescendo, appassionata,
fortissimo, when they discover that 'in death's dark valley this is
Holy Day,' I give then no holiday from that bell. I don't know what it
did 'once in May.' It tolls all the time, with maddening persistence,
in my accompaniment. But I have seen The Rosary, and I dare not face
those chords. To begin with, you start in every known flat; and before
you have gone far you have gathered unto yourself handfuls of known and
unknown sharps, to which you cling, not daring to let them go, lest
they should be wanted again the next moment. Alas, no! When it is a
question of accompanying The Rosary, I must say, as the old farmer at
the tenants' dinner the other day said to the duchess when she pressed
upon him a third helping of pudding: 'Madam, I CANNOT!'"

"Don't be silly, Dal," said Jane. "You could accompany The Rosary
perfectly, if I wanted it done. But, as it happens, I prefer
accompanying myself."

"Ah," said Lady Ingleby, sympathetically, "I quite understand that. It
would be such a relief all the time to know that if things seemed going
wrong, you could stop the other part, and give yourself the note."

The only two real musicians present glanced at each other, and a gleam
of amusement passed between them.

"It certainly would be useful, if necessary," said Jane.

"_I_ would 'stop the other part' and '