"It is well," said the virtuoso. "Bring me the violin of my child. I will speak to her through it."
Grace flew to the dressing room, where Eleanor's violin lay in its open case upon a table near the door. Hastily securing both violin and bow, she flitted out of the room—without having been noticed by the girls at the further end.
"Here it is," she breathed, as she handed it to Eleanor's father. "I will arrange for you to play after the Glee Club, who are just going on now."
"I thank you," replied the great man. "I pray you do not announce me. I shall need no one to accompany me."
"It shall be as you wish," promised Grace.
There was a moment's wait after the Glee Club had filed off the stage, then Guido Savelli appeared, violin in hand.
A faint ripple of surprise stirred the audience. Who was this distinguished stranger! They could not identify him as belonging among Oakdale musicians.
The virtuoso made a comprehensive survey of the house, then placing the violin almost caressingly to his throat, began to play.
His hearers listened in growing astonishment to the exquisite sounds that he drew from the instrument. There was a plaintive, insistent appeal in his music that was like the pleading of a human voice. It was a pathetic cry wrung from a hungry heart.
The dressing-room door stood partly open, and as the full, sweet notes of the violin were carried to her ears, Eleanor gave a cry of rapture.