that she should pause she went to the piano and looked at leaves of up the comers at last she turned toward and said with almost her usual air of proud equality which in this interview had not been hitherto perceptible i congratulate you sincerely i think i never saw any one more admirable than miss and i have to thank you for every sort of kindness this morning but i can t decide now if i make the resolve you have spoken of i will use your permission � i will let you know but i fear the obstacles are too great in any case i am deeply obliged to you it was very bold of mo to ask you to take this trouble inward remark was she will never let me know but with the most thorough respect in his manner he said command me at any time there is an address on this card which will always find me with little delay mien he had taken up his hat and was going to make his bow s better self conscious of an ingratitude which the clear seeing must have penetrated made a desperate effort to find its way above the stifling of disappointment and irritation looking at him with a glance of the old she put out her hand and said with a smile if i take the wrong road it will not bo because of your flattery god forbid that you should take any road but one where you will find and give happiness i said fervently then in foreign fashion he touched her fingers lightly with his lips and in another minute she heard the sound of his departing wheels getting more distant on the gravel had never in life felt so miserable sob came no passion of tears to relieve ber her eyes were burning and the only brought into more dreary clearness the absence of interest from her life all memories all objects the pieces of displayed the open the very reflection of herself in the glass � seemed no better than the packed up shows of a departing fair for the first time since her consciousness began she was having a vision of herself on the common level and had lost the innate sense that there were reasons why she should not be � treated like a passenger with a third class ticket in spite of private objections on her own part she did not move about the prospects by disappointment were too she threw herself into the comer of a and pressed her fingers over her burning eyelids every word that had said seemed to have been into memory as most words are which bring with them a new set of impressions and make an epoch for us only a few hours before the dawning smile of self contentment rested on her lips as she vaguely imagined a future suited to her wishes it seemed but the affair of a year or so for her to become the most approved of the time or if encouraged her idea of bein a singer to proceed by more gradual steps to her place in the opera while she won money and applause by occasional performances why not at home at school among acquaintances she had been used to have her conscious superiority admitted and she had moved in a society where every thing from low to high art is of the amateur kind politely supposed to fall short of perfection only because gentlemen and ladies are not obliged to do more than they otherwise they would probably give forth writings and show themselves more commanding artists than any the world is at present obliged to put up the self confident visions that had her were not of a highly exceptional kind and she had at least shown some in consulting the person who knew the most and had flattered her the least in asking s however she had rather been borne up by a belief in his admiration than bent on knowing any thing more that might have lain behind hia book � h s l slight objections to her singing and the she had asked for with an expectation that it would be agreeable had come like a too old � should have begun seven years you will not at best achieve more than � hard incessant work uncertain praise � bread coming slowly perhaps not at all � people no longer not to see your � glaring � all these phrases in her and even more was the hint that she could only be accepted on the stage as a beauty who hoped to get a husband the that she might be visited with had no very definite form for her but the mere association of any thing called with herself roused a alarm and alone with the images which were raised by those biting words came the more precise conception of which her experience enabled her to how could she take her mamma and the four sisters to don if it were not possible for her to earn money at once and as for to be a and asking her mamma to submit with her to the humiliation of being supported by miss an � that was as bad as being a nay worse for suppose the end of all her study to bo as worthless as clearly expected it to be the sense of received and never repaid would the miseries of disappointment doubtless had magnificent ideas about helping artists but how could he know the feelings of ladies in such matters it was all over she had entertained a mistaken hope and there was an end of it an end of it said aloud starting from her as she heard the steps and voices of her mamma and sisters coming in from church she hurried to the piano and began gathering together her pieces of music with assumed 