"Heel," said Miss Ursula.
"'Eel," repeated Andrea.
"Wool," said Miss Ursula.
"Vool," said Andrea.
"No--wo-o," said Miss Ursula, puffing out her lips so as to accentuate
the "w."
"Wo-o," said Andrea, doing the same. And then they both burst out
laughing. They were enjoying themselves mightily.
Then, from the drawing-room below, came the tinkling sound of the old
untuned piano which had remained unopened for many years. It was the
"Spring Song" of Mendelssohn, played, schoolgirl fashion, with
uncertain fingers that now and then struck false notes. The light died
away from Andrea's face, and he looked inquiringly, if not wonderingly,
at Miss Ursula. She smiled encouragement, pointed first at the floor,
and then at him, thereby indicating that the music was for his benefit.
For awhile he remained quite patient. At last he clapped his hands on
his ears, and, his features distorted with pain, cried out:
"_Nein, nein, nein, das lieb' ich nicht! Es ist hässlich!_"
In eager pantomime he besought her to stop the entertainment. Miss
Ursula went downstairs, hating to hurt her sister's feelings, yet
unable to crush a wicked, unregenerate feeling of pleasure.
"I am so sorry, dear Janet," she said, laying her hand on her sister's
arm, "but he doesn't like music. It's astonishing, his dislike. It
makes him quite violent."
Miss Widdington ceased playing and accompanied her sister upstairs.
Andrea, with an expressive shrug of the shoulders, reached out his two
hands to the musician and, taking hers, kissed her finger-tips. Miss
Widdington consulted Otto.
"_Lieben Sie nicht Musik?_"
"_Ja wohl_," he cried, and, laughing, played an imaginary fiddle.
"He _does_ like music," cried Miss Widdington. "How can you make such
silly mistakes, Ursula? Only he prefers the violin."
Miss Ursula grew downcast for a moment; then she brightened. A
brilliant idea occurred to her.
"Adam Penruddocke. He has a fiddle. We can ask him to come up after
tea and play to us."
She reassured Andrea in her queer sign-language, and later in the
afternoon Adam Penruddocke, a sheepish giant of a fisherman, was shown
into the room. He bowed to the ladies, shook the long white hand
proffered him by the beautiful youth, tuned up, and played "The
Carnival of Venice" from start to finish. Andrea regarded him with
mischievous, laughing eyes, and at the end he applauded vigorously.
Miss Widdington turned to her sister.
"I knew he liked music," she said.
"Shall I play something else, sir?" asked Penruddocke.
Andrea, guessing his meaning, beckoned him to approach the bed, and
took the violin and bow from his hands. He looked at the instrument
critically, smiled to himself, tuned it afresh, and with an air of
intense happiness drew the bow across the strings.
"Why, he can play it!" cried Miss Ursula.