“If you would be so kind,” said Eunice, vacating her seat at the piano, which action brought a frown to the face of her watchful mother. “I can sing better standing up.”

Crispin played the prelude in sufficiently good style, and Caliphronas, sinking into a chair near the singer, looked up into her face in a somewhat bold fashion, as she sang the latest up-to-date song of the day.

THE STAR SIRIUS.

I.

A glowing star of ardent ray

In midnight skies we trace,

It is a central sun, they say,

Enshrined in distant space.

Around it giant planets turn,

In motion constant roll,