Mary was hastening to assure him that the fact was quite the other way, when Ann prevented her.
"I told you so!" she said; "you make an idol of your foolish plaything, but other people take it only for the nuisance it is."
"Indeed, you never were more mistaken," said Mary. "Both Mrs. Helmer and myself are charmed with the little that reaches us. It is, indeed, seldom one hears tones of such purity."
The player responded with a sigh of pleasure.
"Now there you are, miss," cried Ann, "a-flattering of his folly till not a word I say will be of the smallest use!"
"If your words are not wise," said Mary, with suppressed indignation, "the less he heeds them the better."
"It ain't wise, to my judgment, miss, to make a man think himself something when he is nothing. It's quite enough a man should deceive his own self, without another to come and help him."
"To speak the truth is not to deceive," replied Mary. "I have some knowledge of music, and I say only what is true."
"What good can it be spending his time scraping horsehair athort catgut?"
"They must fancy some good in it up in heaven," said Mary, "or they wouldn't have so much of it there."