She did not tell Larrie this new wonderful secret that made her heart sing even when her lips were silent. She wanted to keep it as a grand surprise to him, and in bursting out on an astonished world to amaze him also, and fill him with pride and gladness at her power. He was so used to her voice, had heard her chirping, and chirruping, and trilling ever since she was five, and though of course he loved it as he loved her, it had not occurred to him that she was extraordinarily gifted. Naturally he had heard praise and admiration and considered them only her due, but she had lived so quietly in this lonely Red Road country, both before and after her marriage, that she had never had the opportunity of hearing really competent criticism before. Even she herself had not dreamed her gift was so rich. Fond of singing she had always been, it came as naturally to her as speech; she knew she had the best voice in the district, but that was not saying much; and sometimes when she had been to concerts in Sydney it had struck her that she could render certain songs of the performers quite as well as they did, if not better. Mr Wooster's words had been as a flash of lightning illuminating all her future life. What dreams she had over the piano as she climbed to clear B's and wonderful birdlike upper C's! How proud Larrie would be of her, what fame should be hers, how they would travel with the wealth to come, and oh, what a brilliant, beautiful future baby's should be! She told Wooster that she wanted to keep the secret from her husband at present, and he smilingly acquiesced, so great was her happiness in it. In asking Larrie's permission to give a few lessons to his wife he only said, as twenty others had done before, that her voice was very good indeed and would be much improved by training. Larrie gave his consent half unwillingly; Dot's singing he considered was quite good enough for anything, _he_ was quite satisfied; but he saw it would seem churlish to refuse, and Dot would take it as a fresh instance of his 'tyranny,' so he allowed the lessons to begin. He was not half so happy as Dot in those days. Poor Larrie! It was very slow, unexciting work sitting in a twelve-foot-square office all day, waiting for clients who never came. He had the feelings of an exile, too, whenever he thought of the dear little cottage where the days had all been short and bright. It seemed as if Dot had banished him from the little kingdom because she was tired of him, and it was real torture to him to notice how light-hearted and happy she seemed without him, while he was more miserable than he had ever been in his life.