to see her very intimate with Mrs. Abbott —­ perhaps helping to teach babies on the kindergarten system!  Left to her own resources, she could do little beyond refusing connections that were manifestly undesirable.  Sibyl, she knew, associated with people of much higher standing, only out of curiosity taking a peep at the world to which her friend was restricted.  There had always been a slight disparity in this respect between them, and in former days Alma had accepted it without murmuring; but why did Sibyl, just when she could have been socially helpful, show a disposition to hold aloof?  ’Of course, you care nothing for people of that kind,’ Mrs. Carnaby had said, after casually mentioning some ‘good’ family at whose country house she had been visiting.  It was intended, perhaps, as a compliment, with allusion to Alma’s theories of the ‘simple life’; but, in face of the very plain fact that such theories were utterly abandoned, it sounded to Alma a humiliating irony.

Could it be that Sibyl feared inquiries, shrank from having it known that she was on intimate terms with the daughter of the late Bennet Frothingham —­ a name still too often mentioned in newspapers and elsewhere?  The shadow of this possibility had ere now flitted over Alma’s mind; she was in the mood to establish it as a certainty, and to indulge the resentment that naturally ensued.  For on more than one occasion of late, at Mrs. Rayner Mann’s or in some such house, she had fancied that one person and another had eyed her in a way that was not quite flattering, and that remarks were privately exchanged about her.  Perhaps Harvey himself saw in the fact of her parentage a social obstacle, which made him disinclined to extend their circle of common acquaintances.  Was that what he meant by his grave air this evening?  Was he annoyed at the thought of a publicity which would reveal her maiden name?

These currents of troubled feeling streamed together and bore her turbidly onwards whither her desires pointed.  In one way, and one way only, could she hope to become triumphantly conspicuous, to raise herself quite above petty social prejudices, to defeat ill-wishers and put to shame faint-hearted friends.  She had never been able to endure the thought of mediocrity.  One chance there was; she must grasp it energetically and without delay.  And she must make use of all subsidiary means to her great conquest —­ save only the last dishonour.

That on her own merit she might rise to the first rank of musicians, Alma did not doubt.  Her difficulty lay in the thought that it might require a long time, a wearisome struggle, to gain the universal recognition which alone would satisfy her.  Therefore must Cyrus Redgrave be brought to the exertion of all his influence, which she imagined would assist her greatly.  Therefore, too, must Felix Dymes be retained as her warm friend, probably (his own suggestion) as her man of business.

It was January.  Her ‘recital’ must take place in the coming season, in May or June.  She would sketch a programme at once —­ tomorrow morning —­ and then work, work, work terrifically!