The footman dropped a plate; stooping for this, he brought down three or four spoons and forks in his agitation. "Atkinson!" "My lord!" answered Atkinson, appearing suddenly. "What is this?" demanded his lordship, fixing the gorgeous person with terrible eye. "The third footman, I believe, my lord." "Send him out--he annoys me." The gorgeous person having taken himself off, Jeremy sighed in huge relief but glanced furtively askance from dainty china and snowy linen to his own grimy hands and smirched garments; perceiving which embarrassment the Earl hastened to set him at his ease: "John Bunyan was a tinker also, friend Jarvis," said he, as we drew to the table. And a cheery meal we made of it, for what with his lordship's tactful, easy courtesy and Diana's serene unconsciousness, who could worry over such trifles as grimy hands or shirt sleeves; and if the Tinker be-jammed his fingers or Diana drank from her saucer, she did it with such assured grace as charmed me, and when his lordship followed her example, I loved him for the courtly gentleman he was. "You have studied and thought deeply, I think, friend Jarvis?" said his lordship. "You reverence books?" "Aye, sir--my lord. I used to peddle 'em once, but I read more than I ever sold." "Ah, yes," said Diana; "'t was our good, kind Jerry taught me how to read and write when I lived wi' the Folk." "And what of your parents, child?" "I only remember old Azor." "But you are not of the Zingari, I think?" "I don't know, old pal--and what's it matter--O Jerry, the shin o' beef!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands. "Jessamy's back by this and it ought to be in the pot. So if you want me to sing--" "We do!" said his lordship, and rising he brought her to the organ; there, standing beside him while he played a hushed accompaniment, she sang, at my suggestion, that same wild gipsy air which had so stirred me once before in the wood. But to-day, confined within these surrounding walls, her voice seemed to me even more glorious, so softly pure and plaintively sweet, anon soaring in trilling ecstasy--until the swelling glory sank, languished to a sigh and was gone; and I for one lost in awed wonder and delight. For to-day she sang with all that tender, unaffected sweetness, all that passionate intensity that was part of her strange self. "Diana," said his lordship gravely, "God has entrusted you with a great and beneficent power; you have a rare and wonderful voice such as might stir mankind to loftier thought and nobler ideal and thus make the world a better place. Child, how will you acquit yourself of this responsibility? Will you make the most of your great gift, using it for the benefit of countless others, or let it atrophy and perish unheard--?" "Perish?" exclaimed Diana, opening her eyes very wide. "Old pal, what do you mean?"