"But why the motives of 'The Ring'?"
"Why not, Louise? Short little phrases, just suited to a bird."
"But, dear, you must have spent hours teaching them."
"It requires a great deal of patience, but when there is a great whirl in one's head—"
Evelyn stopped speaking, and Louise understood that she shrank from the confession that to retain her sanity she had taught bullfinches to whistle,
"So she is sane, saner than any of us, for she has kept herself sane by an effort of her own will," Louise said to herself.
"Some birds learn much quicker than others; they vary a great deal."
"My dear Evelyn, it is ever so nice of you. Just fancy teaching bullfinches to sing the motives of 'The Ring,' It seemed to me I was in an enchanted garden. But tell me, why, when you had taught them, did you let them fly away?"
"Well, you see, they can only remember two tunes. If you teach them a third they forget the first two, and it seemed a pity to confuse them."
"So when a bullfinch knows two motives you let him go? Well, it is all very simple now you have explained it. They find everything they want in the garden. The bullfinch is a homely little bird, almost as domestic as the robin; they just stay here, isn't that it?"