His tone and air spoke more than his words, and, to the quick conceptions of Elinor, pronounced: This divine singer, whom you were all ready to worship, is no other than the lonely Wanderer whom you were all ready to condemn!
Mrs Maple now, violently ringing the bell, ordered one of her servants to summon the woman who came from abroad.
The stranger obeyed, with the confused look of a person who expected a reprimand, to which she had not courage to reply.
'Be so good as to tell me,' said Mrs Maple, 'what you have been into my drawing-room for? and whether you know who it is, that has taken the liberty to play upon my niece's harp?'
The Incognita begged a thousand pardons, but said that having learnt, from the house-maid, that the family was gone out for the day, she had ventured to descend, to take a little air and exercise in the garden.
'And what has that to do with my niece's harp?—And my drawing-room?'
'The door, Madam, was open.—It was long since I had seen an instrument—I thought no one would hear me—'
'Why you don't pretend that it was you who played?'
The young woman renewed her apology.
'You?—You play upon a harp?—And pray who was it that sung?'