“Your Hettina smiled, and assured them it was almost well.
“‘O, I prayed to Apollo,’ cried Mr. Bruce, ‘for its recovery, and he has heard my prayer.’
“‘I have no doubt, sir,’ said Hetty, ‘of your influence with Apollo.’
“‘I ought to have some, Madam,’ answered he grandly, ‘for I have been a slave to him all my life!’”
“He then came to hope that I should open the concert; speaking to me with just such an encouraging sort of smile as if I had been about eleven years old; and strongly admonishing me not to delay coming forward at once, as he was prepared for no common pleasure in listening to me.
“Next he advanced to Susanna, begging her to exhibit her talent; and telling her he had had a dream, that if she refused to play, some great misfortune would befall him.
“When he had gone through this little circle of gallantry, to his own apparent satisfaction, he suffered Mr. Nesbit to seize upon him for another whispering dialogue; in which, as Mrs. Strange has since told my mother, that pretty swain lamented that he must soon run away, a certain lady of quality having taken such an unaccountable fancy to him at the opera of the preceding night, that she had appointed him to be with her this evening tête à tête!
“Mr. Bruce gave so little credit to this bonne fortune, that he laughed aloud in relating it to Mrs. Strange.
“Mr. Bruce then called upon Dr. Russel to take a violin, saying he was a very fine performer; but adding, ‘We used to disgrace his talents, I own, at Aleppo; for, having no blind fiddler at hand, we kept him playing country dances by the hour.’
“Dr. Russel mentioned some town in those parts, Asia or Africa, where a concert, upon occasion of a marriage, lasted three days.