Part 36 (1/2)

”Not like you.” He pauses, and then says, slowly, ”I used to think nature was impartial in the distribution of her gifts,--that, as a rule, we all received pretty much the same amount of good at her hands; to one beauty, to another talent, and so on; but I was wrong: she has her favorites, it appears. Surely already you had had more than your share, without throwing in your perfect voice.”

Molly lowers her eyes, but makes no reply; experience has taught her that this is one of the occasions on which ”silence is golden.”

”You sing yourself, perhaps?” she says, presently, when she has tired of waiting for him to start a subject.

”Occasionally. Will you sing this with me?” taking up a celebrated duet and placing it before her. ”Do you know it?”

”Yes, Mr. Luttrell and I used to sing it often at Brooklyn: it was a great favorite of ours.”

”Oh, that! Indeed!” laying it aside with suspicious haste. ”Shall we try something else?”

”And why something else?” composedly. ”Does that not suit your voice?

If it does, I will sing it with you with pleasure.”

”Really?” regarding her closely, with what is decidedly more than admiration in his gaze. ”Are there no recollections hidden in that song?”

”How can I tell? I never saw that particular edition before. Open it, and let us see,” returns Molly, with a merry laugh. ”Who knows what we may find between the pages?”

”If I might only believe you,” he says, earnestly, still only half convinced. ”Do you mean to tell me Luttrell spent an entire month with you, and left you heart-whole? I cannot believe it.”

”Then don't,” still laughing.

At this instant, Luttrell, who has with moody eyes been watching Philip's eager face from the other end of the room, saunters up, and seeing the old well-remembered duet lying open before Molly, suddenly thinks it may be there for him, and cheering up, says pleasantly:

”Are you going to sing it with me?”

”Not to-night,” Molly replies, kindly; ”Philip has just asked me to sing it with him. Some other time.”

”Ah!” says Luttrell, more wounded than he cares to confess; for is not that very song endeared to him by a thousand memories? and turning on his heel, he walks away.

With a little impulsive gesture Molly rises from the piano-stool, and, without again looking at Philip, moves across the room to the seat she had originally vacated. As she does so she pa.s.ses close by Marcia, who, ever since her cousin's voice first sounded in her ears, has been sitting silent, now pale, now red.

She stays Molly by a slight movement of the hand, and says, coldly:

”I thought you told me you could neither sing nor understand French?”

”I don't think I could have said quite that,” Molly replies, quietly; ”I told you I sang a little; it is not customary to laud one's own performances.”

”You are a clever actress,” says Marcia, so low as to be unheard by all but Molly: ”with such a voice as yours, and such masterly command of all emotion and expression, you should make the stage your home.”

”Perhaps I shall find your hint useful in the future,” says Molly, with a slight shrug of her shoulders: ”when one is poor it is always well to know there is something one can put one's hand to when things come to the worst; but at present I feel sufficiently at home where I am. I am glad,” calmly, ”my singing pleased you,--if, indeed, it did.”

”You sing magnificently,” Marcia says, aloud, giving her meed of praise justly, but unwillingly.

”And such a charming song as that is!” breaks in Mrs. Darley: ”I remember hearing it for the first time, just after my marriage; indeed, while we were yet enjoying our wedding tour. Do you remember it, dearest?” As she murmurs the tender words, she turns upon her lord two azure eyes so limpid and full of trust and love that any man ignorant of the truth would have sworn by all his G.o.ds her desire was with her husband, whereas every inch of heart she possesses has long since been handed over to a man in the Horse Guards Blue.

”Humph!” says Henry Darley, eloquently; and without further rejoinder goes on with the game of chess he is playing with Mr. Amherst.

”Let us have something else, Eleanor,” her grandfather says, looking up for an instant from his beloved queens and kings and castles; ”another song.”