nk you, doctor; no, there is no need of your going back with
me. Good-night."

"Thanks to you, Miss Alden, thanks, thanks. The sermon was good, but
that last hymn rounded up Sunday for me. I was going up to the house,
but I'll go home and keep that music in my ears. If they had known,
they wouldn't have spared you from the hotel music to-night."

"Please say nothing about it--that is all I ask," she said, as she
took Graydon's arm.

"Yes, Madge," he began, quietly, "you sung well. You had the rudiments
of a fine voice years ago. In gaining strength you have also won the
power to sing."

"Yes," she said, simply.

"Do you sing much?"

"I do not wish to sing at all in the hotel. I did not study music in
order to be conspicuous."

"Have you studied it very carefully?"

"Please leave out the word 'very.' I studied it as a young girl
studies, not scientifically. I had a good master, and he did his
best for me. Poor Herr Brachmann! he was sorry to have me come away.
Perhaps in time I can make progress that will satisfy him better. I
could see that he was often dissatisfied."

"You don't mean to suggest that you are going back to Santa Barbara?"

"Why not?"

"True enough, 'why not?' It was a foolish question. You doubtless have
strong attachments there."

"I have, indeed."

"And it's natural to go where our attachments are strongest."

"Yes; you have proved that to-day."

"You evidently share in my brother's disapproval. Mary would soon
become quite reconciled."

"I? I have no right to feel either approval or disapproval, while you
have an undoubted right to please yourself."

"Indeed! are you so indifferent? If you think Miss Wildmere
objectionable you should disapprove."

"If you find her altogether charming, if she realizes your ideal, is
not that sufficient? Everything is very much what it seems to us. If
I as a girl would please myself, you, surely, as a man have a right to
do so."

"Do you propose to please yourself?"

"Indeed I do."

"You will be disappointed. You have formed a passion for ideals. I
imagine, though, that you are somewhat different from other girls
whose future husbands must be ideal men, but who are content
themselves to remain very much what their milliners, dressmakers, and
fashion make them."

"I can at least say that I am not content; and I am also guilty of the
enormity of cherishing ideals."

"Oh, I've found that out, if nothing else. Ideals among men are as
thick