"But if I asked father to spare you?"

"Oh, I'd like to right enough." Mr. Groom was young, and the temptress,
if younger, was skilled in wiles.

"But your father--"

"Oh, I can manage Dad. I'll go and see him now." She would be at the
door before her teacher perceived that his opportunity was vanishing.

"Norah, come back! If I'm to go out, you must play this first--and get
it right."

Mr. Groom could be firm on occasions. "Come along, you little shirker!"
and Norah would unwillingly return to the music stool, and worry
laboriously though a page of the hated Czerny.




CHAPTER II



PETS AND PLAYTHINGS


After her father, Norah's chief companions were her pets.

These were a numerous and varied band, and required no small amount of