You will tell him much
better than I."
"And what will you do?" she said, turning suddenly and looking at
him with fervid eyes. "Will you wait here for me?"
"No, I will go home, and do you come and fetch me--and don't
forget to tell him I caught the trout and have earned an
invitation to dinner."
His irresponsibility enchanted her in spite of herself--Ned had
judged the situation rightly when he said: "It is the circus
aspiring to the academy and the academy spying the circus." His
epigram occurred to him as he walked home and it amused him, and
he thought of how unexpected their lives would be, and he hummed
beautiful music as he went along the roads, Schumann's Lotus
Flower and The Moonlight. Then he recalled the beautiful duet,
Siegmund's and Sieglinde's May Time, and turning from sublimity
suddenly into triviality he chanted the somewhat common but
expressive duet in Mireille, and the superficiality of its emotion
pleased him at the moment and he hummed it until he arrived at the
farm-house.
Mrs. Grattan could tell his coming from afar, for no one in the
country whistled so beautifully as Mr. Carmady, she said, "every
note is clear and distinct; and it does not matter how many there
are in the tune he will not let one escape him and there is always
a pleasant look in his face when you open the door to him;" and
she ran to the door.
"Mrs. Grattan, won't you get me a cup of tea?" And then he felt he
must talk to some one. "You needn't bring it upstairs, I will take
it in the kitchen if you'll let me.
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