The doctor made no reply.
"You know I warned you," Valentine went on. "You brought this thing on yourself."
"Yes," said Levillier.
But Julian interposed.
"No Valentine," he exclaimed. "For, of course, it is all a trick of yours. You didn't want to sing. We made you. This is your revenge, eh? I didn't know you had it in you to be so—so beastly and cantankerous."
Valentine shook his head.
"It's no trick. It's simply as I said. My talent for music is dead. You have been listening to the voice of its corpse."
Dr. Levillier looked up at length.
"You really mean that?" he said, and there was an awakening within him of his normal ready interest in all things.
"I mean it absolutely."