"But how should everybody know that you think of giving up instruction?" Miss Marion inquired.
"Oh, I dare say I have told everybody," he answered carelessly.
"Ah!" said she; and two or three thoughts passed through the mind of the young lady quite worthy the brain of her mother. "I am half sorry," she continued. "But at least you cannot forget what you know. That is a comfort. And I am sure you love music too well to let me go on committing barbarisms with my hands or voice without telling me."
Leonhard hesitated. How far might he take this dear girl into his secrets? "My friend Wilberforce is always saying that I ought to study abroad in the old European towns before I launch out in earnest," said he finally.
"As architect or musician?" asked the "dear girl."
"As architect, of course," he answered, without manifesting surprise at the question. "He is going himself now, and he wants me to go with him."
"Why don't you go?" The quick look with which he followed this question made Miss Marion add: "It would be the best thing in the world for—for a student, I should think. You said once that your indecision was the bane of your life. I beg your pardon for remembering it. When you have heard the best music and seen the best architecture, you can put an end to this 'thirty years' war,' and come back and settle down."
"All very well," said he, "but please to tell me where I shall find you when I come home."
"Oh, I shall be jogging along somewhere, depend."
"With your mind made up concerning every event five years before it happens? If you had my choice to make, you think, I suppose, that you would decide in a minute which road to fame and fortune you would choose." Mr. Leonhard used his cane as vehemently while he spoke as if he were a conductor swinging his baton through the most exciting movement.