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“That person seems to prefer the society of another lady, if I do know what you mean.”

“Because you drive him to it.”

“Oh well, if he is so easily driven as all that—and besides, I have another string to my bow, thank goodness. Yes, I mean my music. What a blessed thing art is, after all! It doesn’t quarrel with anyone, or get into a temper, or drop you all of a sudden. You know the words, ‘Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.’ I must set them to music some day. That’s just the sort of feeling I have about my music.”

“You are cross to-night, Alice; and you certainly will catch a cold in your head if you sit near that open window. What a queer lonely little corner of the world this is! Look at those dead trees over there, and that white thing starting out of the darkness. Isn’t it like a ghost?”

“Yes, it’s very like a ghost,” said Alice dreamily. “I know, for I have been one myself. It was when I went back to my old home—last year, you remember, Clare, when we stopped at Adelaide on our way out, and you were ill at the hotel. I used to go and wander about the old street by myself. No one knew me, and I hardly seemed to know myself. It is a terrible thing to be a revenant. Our old house looked so shabby