"Ada, dear, play something restful." Adelina immediately conceded to her request, and selected from her large repertoire the compositions most liable to drive away unwelcome thoughts.
"How well you play," said her auditor. "How do you manage to make those fingers perform their office so well?"
"Look at your own, and behold the answer," laughingly replied Adelina. Miss Tracy blushed with pleasure, she, too, had performed on the piano wonderfully well.
The life of this young girl forcibly recalled to her her own youth; perhaps that is why the years bring to the older members of the great drama of Life a desire of renewing through others the part as already enacted by them. Harold, at this juncture, appeared on the scene, the sound of music, as his sister often told him, seeming to reach him no matter where he chanced to be. In this instance other thoughts claimed his attention.
"Adelina," he began, "would you not like to go to some livelier place?"
"Why, Harold, I've just been away."
"Your just means a year, nevertheless," he mischievously retorted, "however flattered we may be by your implying that the time was short."
This was the time annually appointed for her departure.