“No,” she said, and went to the piano, and he found one of the modern ballads set duet fashion, and they began.
Their voices harmonized perfectly, and the squire settled himself in a chair to listen with something like peace in his eyes.
“If you had loved me years ago,
When Time was young and Fate was free
What happiness we now should know!
Love came too late for you and me.”
the refrain of the song ran; but at the last line of the second verse Olivia’s clear voice faltered and broke, and the music ceased.
The squire rose apprehensively, and Bartley Bradstone glowered across the room suspiciously, but, with a quick, yet apparently natural motion of his hand, Faradeane caused the music to slide from the stand.
“I beg your pardon,” he said. “It was my clumsiness.”
She looked up at him gratefully, the moment or two giving her time to recover herself.