But May would not sing, though she was entreated by all the company. She had her little dignity. "Oh, no," she said, "I could not sing after Nelly--Nelly has so much stronger a voice than I have. Oh, please no!" "There is nobody who sings so sweetly as you do," said young Harcourt, delighted with the opportunity. But May would not be persuaded. I don't know that Mrs Brunton was altogether pleased to hear her voice described as so "strong." That is not always a complimentary adjective, and it gave her an amusement tempered with annoyance to hear her organ thus classified. She could not help a little half-angry smile, nor could she help meeting Fitzroy's eye, whose position at the piano, with no one to join him, was a little absurd. He was putting aside the music, looking exceedingly annoyed and rather fierce; but when their eyes met he, too, laughed. They understood each other at once, and when, after this little incident, the music was stopped altogether, he came and sat by her, anxious to communicate his feelings. "What a ridiculous business!" he said. "How silly! to put a stop to everything for the gratification of a little absurd jealousy!" "Jealousy!" said Nelly; "that would be the most absurd of all--if there was any jealousy in it. There is very little reason for any one to be jealous of me." "I do not think so," said Fitzroy, in a low voice. And then Nelly felt again how very foolish it was to remark upon such simple incidents in this strain. "You don't understand my cousins, I see," she said. "It is nothing of the kind; but it is extraordinarily foolish of me to have absorbed everything, and forgotten that May was not a child any longer. She always seems a child to me." "She looks quite as old as you do," her companion said. "Oh, nonsense! she is full ten years younger than I am. However, it does not matter so much, for I am going away." "So soon?" murmured Fitzroy. "Soon! I have been here a fortnight--away from my little children." Mrs Brunton found it expedient to quench his tone of devotion by putting all her disadvantages in the foreground. He looked at her with more meaning than he had ever felt in his life in his eyes. "Would it be indiscreet to ask where you were going?" he said. "Not at all; I am going home. I have a little house at Haven Green, where my children are." "I am going, too," he said. "May I come and see you? I shall be for some time in town."