The herald., 1896-08-02

|
this had guessed what would happen.
I had made her want to learn music. and
she would learn it, and-ths was the hor-
ror OF 1T was to give her her first les
sons 1 had always been in the habit of
saying that believed there must be a spe-
cial reward hereafter for music masters.
because in this life they have to suffer
more than other men.
1t was at breakfast-time that the mo-
ment arrived when felt that 1 had either
to consider myself a brute or to offer IN
teach Wilmay the piano. l set NV teeth
and made the offer. She thanked me and
said that 1t would be lovely, but that she
must not bother me and take I'D NV time
That, of course, finished it. By the end of
breakfast l was imploring as a nrivi,eoe
to be allowed to teach Wilmay the piano.
and Wilmay was sweetIy and gracious,v
conserving. / told Philip afterwards that I
thought that in common decency he ought
to nave protested and said firmly that he
would not allow any guest of his to be turn
ed into music-master in his house. He
smiled and said that he could not see r.
very well, then" I answered. 81 will
have regular hours for those lessons and
keep to them, and break I'D your eo.as-
you-please SYSTEM"
| At this he only smiled apa;n u,ux,
nd decided upon regular hours. and some
times we kept to them. 1 may. perhans
have forgotten about them three or four
times-not more. AS pointed out IN
Philip, it was better than not even attemnt-
ing to he regular.
Wilmay was an excellent pupil. She
learned very quickly, but then she worked
of her own accord far harder than most
children would have worked under com
pulsion. do not pretend that these les.
sons were an unmixed joy to me- doubt
| If elementary lessons on the piano IN
child OF ten are ever an unmixed joy TO
anybody. But had expected that thew
would be very much worse. Wilmay really
loved music. AS reason for nv existence
music seemed to do even better than cho-
colates, though probably those four boxes
helped to solve the problem.
l chaffed Philip occasionally about his
system of educating a child by leaving out
the education and allowing her to do as she
liked. But. speaking seriously, that svs-
tenn had answered admirably with Wilmav.
1t seemed to have given her spirit. an in
dependence, a readiness of initiative that
one very rarely finds in children of that age.
She knew what to do. And, I confess II.
she was not spoiled. She seemed to have
an innate sweetness, tenderness and unself-
ishness of nature that was proof against
spelling. She gave orders to the servants
just as Philip would have done. and the
servants were apparently instructed to take
her orders as his own, but I never heard
her give dictatorial or unreasonable Or
der, or omit to thank servant who had
done anything for her. Her own woman.
Mrs. Blayd, was devoted to her Mrs. Blayd
was blend of nurse, governess and lady's
maid, and also IdtheI gave one the i'm
preston that she was a lady herself. She
was middle-aged woman, very quiet and
reserved. Philip told me that she had
been with Wlmay ever since her birth.
During the next three years saw Philip
and Wilmay fairly frequently. Sometimes
l went down to Ayshurst. Once or twice
my married sister, Mrs. Enterland, had
Philip and Wilmay to stay with her at her
house in Mayfair. Bertha is a worldly lit
tie woman, with few ideas and those mostly
wrong, but before she began to be worldly
she had kind heart, and there are still
traces of it left. I had talked to her about
Philip and Wilmay and she was eager to
hHoW tuelii. put IL OH as long as could,
because Bertha is the very opposite of
Philip and thought the meeting would be
failure. But Bertha insisted, and the
meeting was not a failure. 1t was a toss
up whether Bertha would decide that
Philip was colonial or very interesting"
Philip was a good-looking man, and he
dressed well when he was in London, and
he saved her from being swindled over
some carriage-horses, and he spent money
extravagantly, and he had history which
he did not tell her or anybody else. These
things, taken together, made him in her
eyes very interesting. OF course, there
never was any doubt at all about Wilmay.
She charmed everybody and never knew
it.
1t was when Wilmay was just fourteen
that had asked her and Philip to come and
stop with me at little cottage that had
on the river. There was no river at Ay-
shurst, and both of them were fond Of
boating. On the morning of the day when
they should have arrived l received a tele.
gram from Philip:
Come to Sinden at once Most urgent"
To be Continued