ation was completed, and it seemed too late in the day for him to
try anything else. And so for a year or two they had struggled on,
faring not so badly in the summer when living is cheaper, and Ulric
often got engagements for the season in the band at some watering-place,
but suffering sadly in the long, cold German winters--suffering as those
do who will not complain, who keep up a respectable appearance to the
last. And then came the idea of emigrating to England, suggested to them
by a friend who had happened to hear of what seemed like an opening at
Tarnworth, where they had now been for nearly two months without finding
any pupils for Ulric, or employment of any kind in his profession for
the young musician.

So it is easy to understand the delight with which he accepted Lady
Iltyd's proposal, made to him by Mrs. Marchcote.

It would be difficult to say which of the two, master or pupil, looked
forward the more eagerly to the first music-lesson. Basil dreamed of it
night and day. Herr Wildermann on his side built castles in the air
about the number of pupils he was to have, and the fame he was to gain
through his success with Lady Iltyd's boy. Poor fellow, it was not from
vanity that his mind dwelt on and so little doubted this same wonderful
success!

And in due course came the day after to-morrow, neither hastened nor
retarded by the eagerness with which it was looked forward to.

"What a beautiful home! The child cannot but be refined and tender in
nature who has been brought up in such a home," thought Herr Wildermann,
ready at all times to think the best, and more than usually inclined
to-day to see things through rose-coloured spectacles.

He was walking up the long avenue of elms, leading to the Hall. The
weather was lovely, already hot, however, and he would have liked to
take off his hat and let the breeze--what there was of it, that is to
say--play on his forehead. But he had not a free hand, for he was loaded
with no less than three violins, his own and two others, what are called
half and three-quarters sized, as, till he saw his little pupil, he
could not tell which would suit him. He did look rather a comical
object, I daresay, to the tall footman at the door, but not so to the
eager child who had spent the last hour at least in peeping out to see
if his master was not yet coming.

"Mother," he exclaimed, rushing back into the room, "he's come. And
he's brought loads of violins."

"_Loads_,"