The Rosary

her basket in the middl

and that sustains me until dinner. Oh yes, my dear Myra, I know I came to your interesting meeting, and signed that excellent pledge 'POUR ENCOURAGER LES AUTRES'; but I drove straight to my doctor when I left your house, and he gave me a certificate to say I MUST take something when I needed it; and I always need it when I wake from my nap.... Really, Dal, it is positively wicked for any man, off the stage

rtistic world, and whose violet shirt had just been so severely censured, lay back in his l

g to the remarks that sweet bird would make while I painted him. But I will tell you what I will do. I will paint you, dear Duchess, only not in that hat! Ever since I was quite a small boy, a straw hat with black ribbons tied under the chin has made me feel ill. If I yielded to my natural impulses now, I sho

the gay group around him. When Garth Dalmain described his pictures, people saw them. When they walked into the Academy or the New

cry; and whether that is why she is being so clumsy in her manipulation of pins and things. If it is, you promptly promise her a day off, to go and see her old mother; and pay her journey there and back. If it isn't, you scold her some mo

ing about my maids, and my neck, and your crocodile tears, and

ou will turn it from you, so that it reflects something exactly in front of you in the imaginary foreground. You will be looking at this unseen object with an expression of sublime affection. And in the mirror I will paint a vivid, brilliant, complete reflection, minute, but perfect in every detail, of your scarlet macaw on his perch. We will call it 'Reflections,' because one must always give

shall paint it, Dal, in time for next yea

aw it they said: "Ah, of course! There it is;

out? Jane! You march across this lawn like a grenadier. Can't you explain to Simmons how it's done? ... Well? What is it? Ha! A tele

tisfactory silence, the duchess

s highly coloured, became purple as she read, and absolutely inarticulate with indignation. Jane

riends. And I had a lovely string of pearls for her, worth far more than she would have b

tack of laryngitis, she could not possibly sing a note, even

now it! WHY must she have her what-do-you-call-it, just when she was coming to sing here? In my young days people never had these new-fangled complaints. I have no patience with

main whispered to Jane: "I do abominate irrelevance, and you k

ted the macaw, having apparently

somebody!" said th

Jane, "there are

rth, delighted, shook his head at Jane. "When he says 'go

cucumber sandwiches; and Garth picked one blade of grass, and hande

Now the question is, What is to be done? Here is half the county coming to hear Velma, by my invitation; and Velma in

ommy. The duchess smiled,

does not know Madame Velma was to be here. It was a profound secret. You were

r garden hat, and the duches

"That was the lovely p

. They are coming to listen to one another, and to hear themselves, and to enjoy your claret-cup and ices. All th

, who had met the duchess once or twice, described as "genuine Plantagenet"-"but they will go away wise in their own conceits

ty of good music, Madame Velma herself most likely, and all the great singers. They know they cannot sing like a p

the third time this afternoon I

lmain, "if I were your grandma

on it. The whole decoration of the room is planned to suit that song-festoons of white roses

, au

in that senseless way! Can

n!" exclaimed

r good humour fully restored. "Give him a strawb

slowly round, and looked into the keen eyes peering at her from under the mushroom hat. As she read the half-resentful, half-appealing demand in them, a slow smile dawned in h

have been loud-voiced in its expressions of surprise. Being a "best party," it gave no outward sign; but a sense of blank as

ce of Meldrum, rising, and picking

nd she, who so rarely admires these modern songs, was immensely taken with it. She sang it, an

to fail us. So 'au revoir,' good people. Remember, we dine punctually at eight o'clock. Music is supposed to begin at nine. Ronnie, be a kind

under th

my, keeping his balance wonderfully, sidled up close to him, evidently making confidential remarks into

eople were w

uld offer to play your accompaniment, dear; but I can only man

scendo, appassionata, fortissimo, when they discover that 'in death's dark valley this is Holy Day,' I give then no holiday from that bell. I don't know what it did 'once in May.' It tolls all the time, with maddening persistence, in my accompaniment. But I have seen The Rosary, and I dare not face those chords. To begin with, you start in every known flat; and before you have gone far

mpany The Rosary perfectly, if I wanted it done.

t would be such a relief all the time to know that if things seemed g

t glanced at each other, and a gle

d be useful, if ne

art' and 'give you the not

u are always so very kind. But I pref

can stand and face the audience?" Garth Dalmain spoke anxiously. Jane was a special frien

. She glanced around. Most of the party had wandered off in twos and threes, some to the house, others back to the river. She and Dal and Myra w

I have had the immense privilege of studying with Madame Marchesi in Paris, and of keeping up to the mark since by an occasional delightful hour with her no less gifte

her words, she followed along, slightly behind the trebles as regarded time, and a major third below them as regarded pitch. The housekeeper, a large, dark person with a fringe on her upper lip, unshaven and unashamed, produced a really remarkable effect by singing the air an octave below the trebles. Unfortunately Lady Ingleby was apt to confuse her with the butler. Myra herself was the first to admit that she had not "much ear"; but it was decidedly trying, at a moment when she dared not remove her eyes from the accompaniment of Good King Wenceslas, to have called out: "Stay where you are, Jenkins!" and then find it was Mrs. Jarvis who h

inging of this age did not convey much t

coolly. Why, Velma herself was

her well," said Jane. "I am here to-day bec

Bangs says when you explain who's who at a Marlborough House garden party. But

w smile da

he said, "but accompa

aps of people can sing a little, b

long black lashes, "if you have had singing lessons, and know some so

ed to take it up professionally. He had promised, one Christmas vacation, to sing at a charity concert in town, and went out, when only just recovering from influenza, to fulfil this engagement. He had a relapse, double pneumonia set in, and he died in five

"We have stayed about at the same houses,

h to me. It is a sort of holy of holies in the tabernacle

lifted to-night,"

iling a little ruefull

pass in," said