'What a long time it is, Frank, since you and I sang that duet
together. We have seen nothing of you lately.'
'Of course not; I was in Germany.'
'Yes, but I think you deserted us before then. Do you remember that
summer when we were all together at Bonchurch, and the part songs
which astonished our neighbours just as it was growing dark? I
recollect you and I tried together that very duet for the first time
with the old lodging-house piano.' Frank remembered that evening well.
'You sang better than you did to-night. You did not keep time: what
were you dreaming about?'
'How hot the room is! Do you not feel it oppressive? Let us go into
the conservatory for a minute.'
The door was behind them and they slipped in and sat down, just
inside, and under the orange tree.
'You must not be away so long again. Now mind, we have a musical
evening this day fortnight. You will come? Promise; and we must
sing that duet again, and sing it properly.'
He did not reply, but he stooped down, plucked a blood-red begonia,
and gave it to her.
'That is a pledge. It is very good of you.'
She tried to fasten it in her gown, underneath the locket, but she
dropped a little black pin. He went down on his knees to find it;
rose, and put the flower in its proper place himself, and his head
nearly touched her neck, quite unnecessarily.
'We had better go back now,' she said, 'but mind, I shall keep this
flower for a fortnight and a day, and if you make any excuses I shall
return it faded and withered.'
'Yes, I will come.'
'Good boy; no apologies like those you sent the last time. No bad
throat. Play me false, and there will be a pretty rebuke for you--a
dead flower.' PLAY ME FALSE! It was as if there were some stoppage in a main
artery to his brain. PLAY ME FALSE! It rang in his ears, and for a
moment he saw nothing but the scene at the Hall with Miranda.
Fortunately for him, somebody claimed Cecilia, and he slunk back into
the greenhouse.
One of Mr Palmer's favourite ballads was The Three Ravens. Its
pathos unfits it for an ordinary drawing-room, but as the music at Mr
Palmer's was not of the common kind, The Three Ravens was put on the
list for that night.
'She was dead herself ere evensong time. With a down, hey down, hey
down, God send every gentleman Such hawks, such hounds, and such a leman. With down, hey down, hey down.'