“She is utterly indifferent to applause. Indeed, she acknowledged to me that she was better satisfied when she was coldly received than when she succeeded in arousing people to a frenzy of delight, because then ’twas her hope that the managers would not be so anxious to engage her again. Oh, Betsy is my despair.”
“I can quite believe it. But you talked to her—reasoned with her?”
“Oh yes; I tried to make her feel as I do—that nothing in the world is worth a moment’s thought save only music.”
“But even that argument did not prevail with her? Did she not confide in you that she thought something else worth living for? Young girls have their fancies, as you may have heard—oh yes, their fancies and their loves. Has she been so foolish as to give her heart to any one, do you think?”
“She is going to marry Mr. Long.”
“Oh yes, but I was not talking on the subject of marriage; on the contrary, I was speaking on the topic of love. She has had many suitors. Do you fancy that she may love one of them?”
He gave a shrug and smiled.
“She has had no lack of suitors, but I don’t think that she set her heart on marrying any of them.”
“Not even the poorest of them?”