back. “I do not know how to speak to you,” he said; “how to thank you for last night----” “Oh! so long as you do not think me very presumptuous--very bold. I--could not help it. It was the music that went to my head,” said Lottie, very tremulous, giving a hasty glance at him and then turning her head away. “It is just because the music goes to your head that I have such high hopes--Miss Despard,” said the Signor; “let bygones be bygones, won’t you? and let us be friends.” “We never quarrelled that I know of,” said Lottie, slightly alarmed; and, for his part, the Signor was confused, thinking of Purcell, of whose misadventure he had, of course, no right to know. “You were not pleased with me,” he said. “I did not worship your voice as some people do. I told you plainly that you wanted instruction. So you do still. Your voice is lovely, Miss Despard, and you have the soul of an artist. You can forget yourself. Little singers never forget themselves; they are always in the foreground, seeing their own personality everywhere; but it is very different with you.” Lottie did not say anything in reply. She felt vaguely that he was giving her praise, but she did not mind. Was that someone coming in below? but it was only Captain Despard returning in after matins. The Signor, always so quick, felt again the flutter in her, and knew what her expectation was. “You were once very angry with me for making a--an application to you. You thought I meant to be disrespectful? Ah, no. I could not fail of respect to a lady, Miss Despard; but I saw in you what I see still more clearly now.” “Signor!” said Lottie, rousing herself up to seize the opportunity, with a bewildered feeling that it was right to do it, that if she did not do it now, she never might; and, finally, that to do it might propitiate fate and make it unnecessary to be done--“Signor--let me tell you first. I went to the Abbey yesterday on purpose to see you, to say to you---- ah, here is some one coming to interrupt us.” “Yes, there is some one coming to interrupt us,” cried the Signor almost bitterly; this time there could be no doubt who it was; “but first, one word before he comes. You were coming to tell me that you consented--that you would be my pupil?”