"You will have some one now, Katherine, to accompany you on the violin,
as you have always wanted; Mr. Darrell is a fine violinist."
Kate was instantly all animation. "Oh, that will be delightful, Mr.
Darrell!" she exclaimed, eagerly; "there is nothing I enjoy so much as a
violin accompaniment; it adds so much expression to the music. I think a
piano alone is so unsympathetic; you can't get any feeling out of it!"
"I'm afraid, Miss Underwood, I will prove a disappointment to you,"
Darrell replied; "I have never yet attempted any new music, or even to
play by note, and don't know what success I would have, if any. So far I
have only played what drifts to me--some way, I don't know how--from out
of the past."
The unconscious sadness in his voice stirred the depths of Kate's tender
heart. "Oh, that is too bad!" she exclaimed, quickly, thinking, not of
her own disappointment, but of his trouble of which she had unwittingly
reminded him; then she added, gently, almost timidly,-"But you will, at any rate, let me hear you play, won't you?"
"Certainly, if it will give you any pleasure," he replied, with a slight
smile.
"Very well; then we will arrange it this way," she continued, her
cheerful manner restored; "you will play your music, and, if I am
familiar with it, I will accompany you on the piano. I will get out
Harry's violin to-morrow, and while auntie is taking her nap and papa is
engaged, we will see what we can accomplish in a musical way."
Before Darrell could reply, Mr. Underwood, who had started from his
revery, demanded,-"What engagement are you talking about, you chatterbox?"
"I can't say, papa," she replied, playfully seating herself on the arm
of his chair; "I only know that when I asked your company for a walk
to-morrow afternoon, you pleaded a very important engagement. Now, how
is that?" she asked archly; "have you an engagement, really, or didn't
you care for my society?"
"Why, yes, to be sure; it had escaped my mind for the moment," her
father answered, rather vaguely she thought; then, looking at Darrell,
he said,-"Walcott is coming to-morrow for my final decision in that matter."
Darrell bowed in token that he understood, but did not feel at liberty
to inquire whether the decision was to be favorable to Mr. Walcott, or
otherwise. Kate glanced quickly from one to the other, but before she
could speak her father continued: "I rather think if he consents to two or three conditions which I shall
insist upon, that my answer will be in the affirmative."
"I thought that quite probable from your conversation the other day,"
Darrell replied.
"See here, papa!" Kate exclaimed, mischievously, "you needn't talk over
my head! You used to do so when I was little, but you can't any longer,
you know. Who is this 'Walcott,' and what is this important decision
about?"