e
procured some of the Indian melodies, if they really deserve the name.
One of the professors at the university, who spent six years among the
Indians, recently gave a lecture at court. He brought some of their
instruments with him, and had them played on. There was more noise than
music. It seemed like the lisping of a nation which, as regards
civilization, is yet in its infancy."

"_Four o'clock in the morning_,

"Forget all that I have written to you, as you would the breezes and
the weather-changes of yesterday.

"I have just left my bed, in order to write to you. I cannot sleep. I
am scarcely dressed while I sit here speaking to you. Oh, that I
_could_ speak to you! Writing is a miserable makeshift--nay,
helplessness itself.

"I don't know what ails me. All that I am--my very self--seems as if
only for the time being. I feel as if waiting for something, I know not
what. I fancy that the very next moment must bring it, and that I shall
either be doing some wonderful thing, or have it happen to me--that I
shall be completely changed and become a great healing power, instead
of the puny, useless child of man that I now am. I listen and fancy
that I must hear a tone that has never yet been uttered on earth.

"There is no use trying--I cannot write. I imagined that it would
soothe me if I could force myself to think and speak of all things in
definite terms, but I know nothing definite. I only know that I am
unhappy. Not unhappy, but as if dead and yet alive. I imagine myself a
sleep-walker.

"I can write no more. I close my letter and shall go to bed. I want to
sleep. All the world about me lies hushed in slumber. Oh, that I could
dream myself into another world, even though my sleep were one from
which there is no waking!

"Good-night! Good-morning! IRMA."

CHAPTER VII.

"To-morrow, I mean to bring Countess Irma to you," said Doctor Gunther
to his wife, one evening. "She's the daughter of my old friend."

"In voice and manner, the countess is full of majesty, but her singing
is not practical."

"Then you shall teach her. She will be glad to learn from you."

"If she be willing, I am quite at her service."

The doctor was delighted to find it so easy to bring the two ladies
together. He knew, of course, that his wife complied with his every
wish, but in this instance he was doubly anxious that a