"And if it were given you to have whatever you wished, what would you
ask for, Katrine?"

"To have father well. And then," her face became illuminated, "to study
with Josef."

"Josef?" He repeated the great name interrogatively.

"You have not heard of him?" she asked, incredulously.

He made a sign in the negative.

"He is the greatest teacher in the world," she explained, as though
there could be no doubting.

"Which is perhaps the reason I have never heard of him," he answered,
with a smile. "From your enthusiasm I am led to judge it is music which
he teaches."

"Yes," she answered; "but he teaches more than that. I knew a girl in
Paris who studied with him. She was quite intricate and self-seeking
when she began. And in six months he had changed her whole nature. She
became elemental and direct, and," she put her hands together and threw
them apart with the gesture which he knew so well, "and splendid! Like
Shakespeare's women!" she finished.

"Gracious Heaven, hear!" said Frank. "And does this miracle-worker live
uncrowned?"

"Ah, don't!" she said, her sincerity and enthusiasm reproving his