he would have looked like
what he was, a second or third-rate tragedian.

'I have not yet the pleasure of your name,' said Mrs. Lochleven Cameron,
addressing Barbara.

'My name is Barbara Allen,' said Barbara, speaking it unconsciously as
though it were a line of an old ballad.

'This, Miss Allen,' said Mrs. Cameron with a sweep of the right hand
which might have served to introduce a landscape, 'is Mr. Lochleven
Cameron.'

Barbara rose and curtsied, and Mr. Lochleven Cameron bowed. Barbara
concluded that this was _not_ the gentleman who had been called
downstairs as 'Joe.'

'Will you' sing that little ballad over again, Miss Allen?' asked Mrs.
Cameron, gravely seating herself.

Barbara sang the ballad over again, and sang it rather better than
before.

Mrs. Cameron cried again, and Mr. Cameron said 'Bravo!' at the finish.

'Now,' said Mrs. Cameron, 'do you know anything sprightly?' she
pronounced it 'sproightly,' but she was off her guard.

Barbara, by this time only enough excited to do her best, sang 'Come
lasses and lads,' and sang it like herself, with honest mirth and rural
roguishness. For without knowing it, this young lady was a born
actress, and did by nature and beautifully what others are taught to do
awkwardly.

'You'll have to broaden the style a little for the theatre,' said the
tragedienne, 'but for a small room nothing could be better.'

'I venture to predict,' said the tragedian, 'that Miss Allen will become
an ornament to the profession.'

'I am afraid,' said Barbara, rising from the piano, 'that after all I
may be only wasting your time. I have not asked your terms, and--I am--I
have not much money.'

'Miss Allen,' said the tragedian, 'unless I am much mistaken, you will
not long have to mourn that unpleasant condition of affairs.'

'Are your parents aware of your design, Miss Allen?' This from the lady.

'I have no parents,' faltered Barbara. 'I am living with my uncle.'

'Does he know your wishes in this matter?'

'No,' said Barbara, and the feeling of guilt returned.

'If he is willing to entrust you to my tuition,' said Mrs. Lochleven
Cameron, 'I should be willing to instruct you without charge on
condition that you bound yourself to pay to Mr. Cameron one-third of
your earnings for the first three years.'

This opened up a vista to Barbara, but she was certain that her uncle
would give his consent to no such arrangement.

'You had better lay the matter before your uncle