of _my_ Song of Songs."




CHAPTER XI



It was Mrs. Mason who first asked that Paula play; but it was Terrence
McFane and Aaron Hancock who evicted the rag-time group from the piano
and sent Theodore Malken, a blushing ambassador, to escort Paula.

"'Tis for the confounding of this pagan that I'm askin' you to play
'Reflections on the Water,'" Graham heard Terrence say to her.

"And 'The Girl with Flaxen Hair,' after, please," begged Hancock, the
indicted pagan. "It will aptly prove my disputation. This wild Celt
has a bog-theory of music that predates the cave-man--and he has the
unadulterated stupidity to call himself ultra-modern."

"Oh, Debussy!" Paula laughed. "Still wrangling over him, eh? I'll try
and get around to him. But I don't know with what I'll begin."

Dar Hyal joined the three sages in seating Paula at the concert grand
which, Graham decided, was none too great for the great room. But no
sooner was she seated than the three sages slipped away to what were
evidently their chosen listening places. The young poet stretched
himself prone on a deep bearskin forty feet from the piano, his hands
buried in his hair. Terrence and Aaron lolled into a cushioned