“And if—if I played well,” faltered he, “would it really please you?”      

       “Of course it would,” cried Edith, laughing; “how can you ask such a foolish question?”      

       “Because I hardly dared to believe it.”      

       “Now listen to me,” continued the girl, leaning forward in her chair, and beaming all over with kindly officiousness; “now for once you must be rational and do just what I tell you. I shall never like you again if you oppose me in this, for I have set my heart upon it; you must promise beforehand that you will be good and not make any objection. Do you hear?”      

       When Edith assumed this tone toward him, she might well have made him promise to perform miracles. She was too intent upon her benevolent scheme to heed the possible inferences which he might draw from her sudden display of interest.     

       “Then you promise?” repeated she, eagerly, as he hesitated to answer.     

       “Yes, I promise.”      

       “Now, you must not be surprised; but mamma and I have made arrangements with Mr. S—— that you are to appear under his auspices at a concert which is to be given a week from to-night. All our friends are going, and we shall take up all the front seats, and I have already told my gentlemen friends to scatter through the audience, and if they care anything for my favor, they will have to applaud vigorously.”      

       Halfdan reddened up to his temples, and began to twist his watch-chain nervously.     

       “You must have small confidence in my ability,” he murmured, “since you       resort to precautions like these.”      

       “But my dear Mr. Birch,” cried Edith, who was quick to discover that she had made a mistake, “it is not kind in you to mistrust me in that way. If a New York audience were as highly cultivated in music as you are, I admit that my precautions would be superfluous. But the papers, you know, will take their tone from the audience, and therefore we must make use of a little innocent artifice to make sure of it. Everything depends upon the success of your first public appearance, and if your friends can in this way help you to establish the reputation which 

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