"You would probably only be disappointed, dear. You think of the few women who succeed; but you forget the many who fail. I hear people say that all the professions are overstocked. It must be so with music too."
"Of course there are too many stupid, talentless performers," said Juliet, "but you know there is always room at the top."
"Well, dear, there is no reason why you should not practise your music, if you take this engagement," said her mother. "Hannah thinks the salary would be forty pounds, so perhaps you might afford to give yourself lessons. You will go and see the lady, Juliet, if she wishes for an interview?"
"Oh yes, I will go and see her," said Juliet, a mischievous gleam coming into her eyes. "Perhaps when she sees me she will not want to engage me."
Two days later, Juliet was sitting with her friend, Flossie Chalcombe, on the public green near which stood the home of the latter. Juliet had kept the promise she had given to her mother. She had not again entered the Chalcombes' house, in spite of many persuasions to do so. The green had become instead the rendezvous of the friends. Here they would linger for a talk when they had walked together from the schoolhouse, and here Juliet would occasionally seek her friend on the fair summer evenings.
Not infrequently it happened that Algernon Chalcombe strolled across from the house with his dogs and lingered by Juliet's side for a talk. Juliet felt very shy of him when first he came, but she soon grew used to seeing him, and came to look forward to her talks with him. It was pleasant to perceive his admiration, which betrayed itself in so subtle a way that her pride could not take offence. From him and his sister she received ample sympathy in her longings after an artistic life. They fed her vanity continually by pictures of the glorious future from which, as they described it, she seemed to be separated only by a few steps.
Juliet and Flossie were alone on this warm summer evening, and their talk consisted largely of lamentation, for Juliet was the bearer of disagreeable intelligence.
"Is it not horrid, Flossie?" she said, as soon as they met. "Hannah is going to take me to Hampstead to-morrow to see that lady."
"You don't mean it? How disgusting!" returned her friend.
"Is it not? I hate the idea of going there to be inspected; but—" and a laughing look came into Juliet's eyes—"it shall not be my fault if the lady engages me. I mean to do my utmost to make a bad impression on her."