Presently, however, Catherine threw her arm round her with a tender
protectingness.

'What did you do with yourself all the afternoon, Roeschen?'

'I practised for two hours,' said the girl shortly, 'and two hours
this morning. My Spohr is nearly perfect.'

'And you didn't look into the school?' asked Catherine, hesitating;
'I know Miss Merry expected you.'

'No, I didn't. When one can play the violin and can't teach, any
more than a cuckatoo, what's the good of wasting one's time in
teaching?'

Catherine did not reply. A minute after Mrs. Leyburn called her,
and she went to sit on a stool at her mother's feet, her hands
resting on the elder woman's lap, the whole attitude of the tall
active figure one of beautiful and childlike abandonment. Mrs.
Leyburn wanted to confide in her about a new cap, and Catherine
took up the subject with a zest which kept her mother happy till
bedtime.

'Why couldn't she take as much interest in my Spohr? thought Rose.

Late that night, long after she had performed all a maid's offices
for her mother, Catherine Leyburn was busy in her own room arranging
a large cupboard containing medicines and ordinary medical necessaries,
a storehouse whence all the simpler emergencies of their end of the