“I will ask mother whether I ought.”
He smiled again. What a little girl it was. There was never a time when Mabel Romaine would have hesitated. “I’ll ask her myself,” he said with sudden decision. “Shall we go now?”
“I think we should,” said Nan sedately. And if she made no more than monosyllabic replies to his remarks on the way back it was not for lack of interest in them or of delight in his company.
CHAPTER XIII
LOHENGRIN
Mr. Wells proved abundantly able to plead his cause before Mrs. Corner who finally gave her consent to Nan’s presence at a private violin performance. “Though why we can’t all be favored, I can’t see,” said Mrs. Corner.
“Well, you see there are very few people I can play before,” confessed the young man.
“But why?”
“Don’t know, dear lady. I suppose it’s because I’m made that way. Now, I have no end of cheek when it comes to my pictures. They may be mere daubs, but I don’t think so, and am perfectly brazen about sending them to exhibitions or about showing them to any one, but the violin, ah, that is different. I can play before Miss Nan, Jack, Pinch, Dr. Paul and a few others and there you are. I am bound to break down if I get it into my head that I have a critical person in the audience. Whether there is such a person or not, doesn’t appear to matter; it’s my thinking there is. I can’t help it, you see.”
“Well,” Mrs. Corner said at last, “even if I can’t see any reason for your extreme modesty in the matter I’ll have to believe it exists and am willing Nan should have the pleasure I know it will be to her to listen to your playing.”