"Tell everybody," said she, eagerly. "Everybody you come across, if, as
you think, it will be the means of inducing people to attend. I shall
tell all friends who call upon me, and ask them to go."

When Mr. Carlyle came up in the evening, the earl was temporarily absent
from the room. Isabel began to speak of the concert.

"It is a hazardous venture for Mr. Kane," observed Mr. Carlyle. "I fear
he will only lose money, and add to his embarrassments."

"Why do you fear that?" she asked.

"Because, Lady Isabel, nothing gets patronized at West Lynne--nothing
native; and people have heard so long of poor Kane's necessities, that
they think little of them."

"Is he so very poor?"

"Very. He is starved half his time."

"Starved!" repeated Isabel, an expression of perplexity arising to her
face as she looked at Mr. Carlyle, for she scarcely understood him. "Do
you mean that he does not have enough to eat?"

"Of bread he may, but not much better nourishment. His salary, as
organist, is thirty pounds, and he gets a little stray teaching. But
he has his wife and children to keep, and no doubt serves them before
himself. I dare say he scarcely knows what it is to taste meat."