? Are you going to continue to urge your wild career,
or not? I ask with a purpose, as Blackiston proposes we should give a
concert together in the third week in July. The Queen's Hall is vacant
one afternoon, and he thinks we might sing and play to them. I'm on if
you are. It will be about the last concert of the season, too, so we
shall have to do our best. Otherwise we, or I, anyhow, will start again
in the autumn with a black mark. By the way, are you going to start
again in the autumn? It wouldn't surprise me one bit to hear that you
and Mike had been talking about just that."

"Don't be too clever to live, Hermann," said Sylvia.

"I don't propose to die, if you mean that. Oh, Blackiston had another
suggestion also. He wanted to know if we would consider making a short
tour in Germany in the autumn. He says that the beloved Fatherland is
rather disposed to be interested in us. He thinks we should have
good audiences at Leipzig, and so on. There's a tendency, he says, to
recognise poor England, a cordial intention, anyhow. I said that in your
case there might be domestic considerations which--But I think I shall
go in any case. Lord, fancy playing in Germany to Germans again. Fancy
being listened to by a German audience; fancy if they approved."

Michael leaned forward, putting his elbow into Hermann's chest. Early
December had already been mentioned as a date for their marriage, and as
a pre-nuptial journey, this seemed to him a plan ecstatically ideal.

"Yes, Sylvia," he said. "The answer is yes. I shall come with you, you
know. I can see it; a triumphal procession, you two making noises, and
me listening. A month's tour, Hermann. Middle of October till middle of
November. Yes, yes."

All his tremendous pride in her singing, dormant for the moment under
the wonder of his love, rose to the surface. He knew what her singing
meant to her, and, from their conversation together just now, how keen
was her eagerness for the strict judgment of those who knew, how she
loved that austere pinnacle of daylight. Here was an ideal opportunity;
never yet, since she had won her place as a singer, had she sung in
Germany, that Mecca of the musical artist, and in her case, the land
from which she sprung. Had the scheme implied a postponement of their
marriage, he would still have declared himself for it, for he unerringly
felt for her in this; he knew intuitively what delicious beckoning this
held for her.

"Yes, yes," he rep