blunder—­a vital connection missed between the power-supplying mechanism and the cylinders containing the records.  He set it right; and nearly dead with fatigue and excitement, unlocked his door, and called his family back.  Then what triumph!  What falling on each other’s necks—­and what a dejeuner in the Palais Royal—­children and all—­paid for by the inventor’s last napoleon!

All this Falloden told, and told well.

Connie could not restrain her pleasure as he came to the end of his tale.  She clapped her hands in delight.

“And when—­when will it come!”

“I think Christmas will see it here.  I’ve only told you half—­and the lesser half.  It’s you that have done most—­far the most.”

And he took out a little note-book, running through the list of visits he had paid to her friends and correspondents in Paris, among whom the rolls were being collected, under Chaumart’s direction.  The Orpheus already had a large musical library of its own—­renderings by some of the finest artists of some of the noblest music.  Beethoven, Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann—­all Otto’s favourite things, as far as Connie had been able to discover them, were in the catalogue.

Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.  She put down the note-book, and spoke in a low voice, as though her girlish joy in their common secret had suddenly dropped.

“It must give him some pleasure—­it must!” she said, slowly, but as though she asked a question.

Falloden did not reply immediately.  He rose from his seat.  Nora, under a quick impulse, gathered up a letter she had been writing, and slipped out of the room.

“At least”—­he looked away from her, straight out of the window—­“I suppose it will please him—­that we tried to do something.”

“How is he—­really?”

He shrugged his shoulders.  Connie was standing, looking down, one hand on her chair.  The afternoon had darkened; he could see only her white brow, and the wealth of her hair which the small head carried so lightly.  Her childishness, her nearness, made his heart beat.  Suddenly she lifted her eyes.

“Do you know”—­it seemed to him her voice choked a little—­“how much—­you matter to him?  Mrs. Mulholland and I couldn’t keep him cheerful while you were away.”

He laughed.

“Well, I have only just escaped a catastrophe to-day.”

She looked alarmed.

“How?”

“I offended Bateson, and he gave notice!” Connie’s “Oh!” was a sound of consternation.  Bateson, the ex-scout had become a most efficient and comfortable valet, and Otto depended greatly upon him.

“It’s all right,” said Falloden quickly.  “I grovelled.  I ate all the humble-pie I could think of.  It was of course impossible to let him go.  Otto can’t do without him.  I seem somehow to have offended his dignity.”

“They have so much!” said Connie, laughing, but rather unsteadily.