Ada was herself a good pianist, and could play fairly well on the violin, and she found that Herr Müller had arranged that she and the girl from the Forest should perform together.
"Come, Frida," she said, "let us play the last passage together; we must be sure we have it perfect."
"Oh, how well you play!" she said when they had finished. "Has Herr Müller been your only teacher?"
"Latterly he has," was the answer; "but when I was quite little I was well taught by my father."
"Your father!" said Adeline; "does he play well? He cannot have had many advantages if he has to work in the woods all day."
"Work in the woods! why, he never did that." Then she added, "Oh! I see you think Wilhelm Hörstel is my father; but that is not the case. My own dear father is dead, and Wilhelm found me left alone in the Black Forest."
"Found in the Black Forest alone!" said Ada. Here was indeed a romance to take the fancy of an imaginative, impulsive girl like Adeline Stanford; and leaving Frida with her story unfinished, she darted off to her parents to tell them what she had heard. They also were much interested in her story, for they had been much astonished at the appearance of the girl from the Forest; and telling Ada that she had better go back to Frida, they turned to Miss Drechsler and asked her to tell them all she knew of the child's history.
She did so, mentioning also her brown Bible and the way in which God was using its words amongst the wood-cutters in the Forest.
The concert was over, but Sir Richard, Lady Stanford, and Miss Drechsler lingered awhile (after the girls had gone to bed), talking over the events of the evening.