'O no, Ethel,' with a glance at the pale face, but it suddenly grew vividly bright as Lance said, 'If you are so kind as to be thinking of my headache, I do assure you it is nothing at all—just what this would be the best cure for.'
'Are you sure?' asked Gertrude solicitously.
'Quite,' he said, smiling. 'I should make no difference at all at home. It is the sort that is defeated by taking no notice of them; and music, and with you——'
'Would drive such ears as yours distracted, I should think,' said Gertrude, nevertheless consenting. 'You see I have tried to follow your advice, but what I have never heard, and have no one to interpret, becomes a mere wilderness to me.'
Lance knew that in his native language of melody he should, birdlike, win courage, but hardly was his finger on the keys before Daisy leapt up in a kind of fury. 'There's that eternal Owl coming down the garden! Come this way,' and she rushed away, beckoning him to follow her into the schoolroom. 'There, the windows look out the other way! It is too intolerable to be taken in the rear! I'll not stand it any longer! The Moss troopers in the morning indeed!'
Both were full of that odd sort of exhilaration always inspired by hide and seek with a visitor, and Lance looked about and recognised the room. 'I have been here before,' he said, 'when you showed me your aquarium.'
'Ah! the Daisiana. You were the hero of that watery adventure, though we little thought that small boy Charlie was to come forth in such colours! What an age ago it seems! I should like to see the Kitten's tail again.'
'Should you? I am sure Cherry would manage it! It would be——'
'Only too full of recollections,' said Gertrude, with a little shudder. 'It was the first time I ever saw——'
Instead of answering, Lance took a miniature from his breast and put it into her hand. She drew in her breath with a gasp. 'How beautiful!' she said, and gazed on through one of the tear mists that can almost convert a portrait into a presence. It was a long time before she said, 'This is better than the first.'