who had come forward from where he had been
studying the new score, he laid his hand affectionately
on Richard's shoulder, as a boy would have
done, and added: "How do you like Unger's new
arrangement?--I've been thinking of nothing else
all day."

"Capital! Capital!" answered Richard, slipping
his arm into Nathan's, and drawing him closer to the
piano. "See how he has treated this adagio phrase,"
and he followed the line with his finger, humming
the tune to Nathan. "The modulation, you see, is
from E Major to A Major, and the flute sustains the
melody, the effect is so peculiarly soft and the whole
so bright with passages of sunshine all through it
--oh, you will love it."

While these two white-haired enthusiasts with
their heads together were studying the score, beating
time with their hands, after the manner of experts
to whom all the curious jumble of dots and
lines that plague so many of us are as plain as print,
Malachi was receiving Miss Clendenning in the hall.
Indeed, he had answered her knock as Nathan was
passing into the drawing-room.

The new arrival bent her neck until Malachi had
relieved her of the long hooded cloak, gave a quick
stamp with her little feet as she shook out her balloon
skirts, and settled herself on the hall-settee