Page:Alice Lauder.pdf/42

over its low white wall to the sea. A big white convolvulus flowed in rivers of blossom all over the wall, and from below came the melancholy thunders of the surf. Campbell had been thinking as they strolled along, and the result of his meditation was a sudden question—

“Have you any relations in England?”

“Oh, yes; principally an old-maid aunt, who teaches music in Hampstead. She will look after me, and put me in the way of proper training.”

“Training in music, I suppose?”

“Music, or the stage. I’m not quite sure yet whether I shall be a great actress or a singer—which shall it be?”

“I don’t think you know the difficulties before you. And the stage, of all things! I can’t imagine what your father is thinking about to send you off alone into the world like this.”

“Oh, well; we don’t have the same sort of world as you do. There are so many little things which I used to think were quite right,—praiseworthy even,—but now I find they are terribly, hopelessly wrong. But there are also things in your world,”—and the girl raised her head and looked out to sea with a glance of pride and disdain,—“things which, on the other hand, I think mean and contemptible, and I would not learn them for the world.”