Precious little did Lavender learn about Leipsic during that walk. The boy devoted himself wholly to Sheila. He had heard frequently of her, and he knew of her coming from the wild and romantic Hebrides; and he began to tell her of all the experiments that composers had made in representing the sound of seas and storms, and winds howling through caverns washed by the waves. Lavender liked music well enough, and could himself play and sing a little, but this enthusiasm rather bored him. He wanted to know if the yellow wine was still as cool and clear as ever down in the twilight of Auerbach’s cellar, what burlesques had lately been played at the theatre, and whether such and such a beer-garden was still to the fore; whereas, he heard only analyses of overtures, and descriptions of the uses of particular musical instruments, and a wild rhapsody about moonlit seas, the sweetness of French horns, the King of Thule, and a dozen other matters.
“Mosenberg,” he said, “before you go calling on people you ought to visit an English tailor. People will think you belong to a German band.”
“I have been to a tailor,” said the lad, with a frank laugh. “My parents, madame, wish me to be quite English; that is why I am sent to live in London, while they are in Frankfort. I stay with some very good friends of mine, who are very musical, and they are not annoyed by my practising, as other people would be.”
“I hope you will sing something to us this evening,” said Sheila.
“I will sing and play for you all the evening,” he said, lightly, “until you are tired. But you must tell me when you are tired, for who can tell how much music will be enough? Sometimes two or three songs are more than enough to make people wish you away.”
“You need have no fear of tiring me,” said Sheila. “But when you are tired I will sing for you.”
“Yes, of course you sing, madame,” he said, casting down his eyes: “I knew that when I saw you.”
Sheila had got a sweetheart, and Lavender saw it and smiled good-naturedly. The awe and reverence with which this lad regarded the beautiful woman beside him, was something new and odd in Kensington Gardens. Yet it was the way of those boys. He had himself had his imaginative fits of worship, in which some very ordinary young woman, who ate a good breakfast and spent an hour and a half in arranging her hair before going out, was regarded as some beautiful goddess fresh risen from the sea, or descended from the clouds. Young Mosenberg was just at the proper age for these foolish dreams. He could sing songs to Sheila, and reveal to her in that way a passion of which he dared not otherwise speak. He would compose pieces of music for her, and dedicate them to her, and spend half his quarterly allowance in having them printed. He would grow to consider him, Lavender, a heartless brute, and cherish dark notions of poisoning him, but for the pain it might cause to her.
“I don’t remember whether you smoke, Mosenberg,” Lavender said, after dinner.
“Yes—a cigarette sometimes,” said the lad; “but if Mrs. Lavender is going away perhaps she will let me go into the drawing-room with her. There is that sonata of Muzio Clementi, madame, which I will try to remember for you if you please.”