"Yes?--go on." "I have been seeking such an opportunity." "Indeed? And do you wish me to suppose that you believed that you--you--could be taught anything in music by an unknown creature who fastened a plate announcing lessons in music, to the palings of such a place as this?" He was silent--looking as if he would have spoken, but could not. She went on: "I thank you for the pleasure you have given me--the unexpected pleasure. It is a favourite piece of mine which you have just performed--I say 'performed' advisedly. I never heard it better played by any one--never! and I never shall. You are a great musician. I?--I am a poor teacher of the rudiments of the art in which you are such an adept. I am obliged by your suggestion that I should give you lessons. I regret that to do so is out of my power. You already play a thousand times better than I ever shall--I was just going out as you came in. I must ask you to be so good as to permit me to go now." He rose from the music stool--towering above her higher and higher. From his altitude he looked down at her for some seconds in silence. Then, in his deep bass voice, he began, as it seemed, to excuse himself. "Believe me----" She cut him short. "I believe nothing--and wish to believe nothing. You had reasons of your own for coming here; what they were I do not know, nor do I seek to know. All I desire is that you should take yourself away." He stooped to pick up his hat. Rising with it in his hand, he glanced towards the window. As he did so, the man who had leaned over the palings came strolling by again. The sight of this man filled him with his former uneasiness. He retreated further back into the room--all but stumbling over Miss Brodie in his haste. In a person of his physique the agitation he displayed was pitiful. It suggested a degree of cowardice which nothing in his appearance seemed to warrant. "I--I beg your pardon--but might I ask you a favour?" "A favour? What is it?" "I will be frank with you. I am being watched by a person whose scrutiny I wish to avoid. Because I wished to escape him was one reason why I came in here." Madge went to the window. The man in the road was lounging lazily along with an air of indifference which was almost too marked to be real. He gave a backward glance as he went. At sight of Madge he quickened his pace. "Is that the man who is watching you?" "Yes, I--I fancy it is." "You fancy? Don't you know?" "It is the man." "He is shorter than you--smaller altogether. Compared to you he is a dwarf. Why are you afraid of him?" Either the question itself, or the tone in which it was asked, brought the blood back into his cheeks. "I did not say I was afraid." "No? Then if you are not afraid, why should you have been so anxious to avoid him as to seek refuge, on so shallow a pretext, in a stranger's house?" The intruder bit his lip. His manner was sullen.