"Her father and mother are in Paris now; that is the reason why Hope doesn't spend her vacations with them," said Dolly.
"This Mr. Benham was a distinguished scientific man of some sort, I believe. He was distinguished for something, I know, and he was with scientific men. I met him at Professor Hervey's, and he came into the room, I remember, with two or three English gentlemen of note. I recollect it, because I know I felt quite proud at the time that he was an American,—he looked so manly and earnest,—and some one told me he had just had a fortune come to him."
"Well, Hope's father must have a lot of money, for she's got a violin that cost enough. It's a regular Cremona."
"No!" exclaimed Jimmy, incredulously.
"Yes; she told me it was made by an Italian who was a pupil of Stradivari and lived in Cremona."
"You don't say so!" cried Jimmy, excitedly. "How I should like to see it, for I tell you to see a real old Cremona would be worth while. Lots of people think they've got a Cremona, when it's only an imitation. Karl Myerwitz, who makes violins, and knows all about them, told me that if everybody who claims to have a Cremona violin, really had one, the number of them would count up to twice as many as had ever been made."
"Well, all I know is that Hope told me that her violin was made in seventeen hundred and something by a pupil of Stradivari."
"Where did her father get it, do you know,—did she tell you that?"
"An old teacher of hers got it,—a German who has a brother who deals in rare violins in Paris."
"How soon did she begin to take lessons?"