"That you have a right to. Besides, I dared not publish it without
knowing you liked it."

"Thank you so much! To hear you sing it will let me know at once whether
the song itself be genuine."

"No, no! I may fail in my part, and yours be all I take it to be. But I
shall not fail. It holds me too fast for that!"

"Then I may hope for a summons?" said Walter, rising.

"Before long. One can not order the mood, you know!"




CHAPTER X.


THE ROUND OF THE WORLD.

Birds when they leave the nest carry, I presume, their hearts with them;
not a few humans leave their hearts behind them--too often, alas! to be
sent for afterward. The whole round of the world, many a cloud-rack on
the ridge of it, and many a mist on the top of that, rises between them
and the eyes and hearts which gave their very life that they might live.
Some as they approach middle age, some only when they are old, wake up
to understand that they have parents. To some the perception comes with
their children; to others with the pang of seeing them walk away
light-hearted out into the world, as they themselves turned their backs