Leighton, with a little spite. "As Miss d'Estrée says, I never heard
anyone sing like that, out of the chorus of an opera."

"Well, I think," returned Charlotte Benson, "if there were many voices
like that in ordinary choruses, one would be glad to dispense with the
solos and duets."

"Oh, you would not find his voice so wonderful, if you heard it out of a
parlor. It is very well, but it would not fill a concert hall, much less
an opera house. No; you may be sure he has been educated for some of
those German choruses; you know they are very fine musicians."

"Well, I don't know that it is anything to us what he was educated for,"
said Charlotte Benson, sharply. "He has given us a very delightful
evening, and I, for one, am much obliged to him."

"_Et moi aussi"_ murmured Henrietta, wreathing her large beautiful arms
about her friend, and the two sauntered away.

Mary Leighton, in general ill-humor, and still remembering the walk of
the last evening, desired to fire a parting-shot, and exclaimed, as she
went out, "Well, I think it is something to us; I like to have
gentlemen about me."

"You need not be uneasy," said Mrs. Hollenbeck, a little stiffly. "I
think Mr. Langenau is a gentleman."

But at this moment his step was heard in the hall below, and there was
an end put to the conversation.