"That is the voice of vocation speaking within you, a voice that may not be disobeyed. It is what the swallows feel when the time for departure has come." "Ah, yes, what the swallows feel." "A yearning for that which one has never known, for distant places, for the sunshine which instinct tells us we must breathe." "Oh, yes, that is it. I used to feel all that in the afternoons in that ornamental park. I used to stop in my walk, for I seemed to see far away, to perceive dimly as in a dream, another country." "And since I came back have you wished to go away?" "No ... for you come to see me, and when I go out with you I'm amused." "I'm afraid I do little to amuse you." "You do a great deal--you lend me books. I never cared to read, now I'm very fond of reading--and I think more." "Of what do you think?" "You see, I never met anyone like you before. You've travelled; you've seen everything; you know everything and everyone. When you come I seem to see in you all the grand world of fashion." "Which you used to see far away as in a dream?" "No, the world of fashion I did not think of till I saw you. Since you came back I have thought of it a little. You seem to express it somehow in your look and dress; and the men who nodded to you in Piccadilly, and the women who bowed to you, all wore the same look, and when they spoke they seemed to know all about you--where you were last summer, and where you are going to spend this autumn. Their friends are your friends; you're all like one family." "You're very observant. I never noticed the things you speak of, but no doubt it is so. But society is ready to receive you; society, believe me, is most anxious for you." After some pause she heard him say-- "But you must not delay to go abroad and study." "Tell me, do you think the concerts will ever pay?" "No, not in the sense of your requirements. Evelyn, since you ask me, I must speak the truth. Those concerts may come to pay their expenses, with a little over, but it is the veriest delusion to imagine that they will bring enough money to take you and your father abroad. Moreover, your father would have to resign his position at St. Joseph's, where he is required; there his mission is. It is painful for me to tell you these things, but I cannot see you waste your life." "What you say is quite true.... I've known it all along." "Only you have shut your eyes to it." "Yes, that's it." "Don't look so frightened, Evelyn. It was better that you should be brought face to face with the truth. You'll have to go abroad and study." "And my father! Don't advise me to leave him. I couldn't do that."