“Personally, I shall never forgive him, but have I the right to keep Eleanor from her father?  He is both rich and famous, and she would adore him, for his music, if for nothing else.  I have always said that when she became twenty-one years of age I should tell her of him, leaving to her the choice of claiming or ignoring him.

“But I never supposed for one instant that he would ever come forward and interest himself in her.  A year ago I should not have considered her fit to choose, but she is greatly changed.  The two years in which she has associated with girls of her own age have benefited her greatly.  I feel as though I could not bear to give her up now.  Moreover, this idea of claiming his child may be merely a whim on the part of her father.  He is liable to forget her inside of six weeks.”

Grace listened to Miss Nevin in breathless silence.  It was all like a story-book romance.

Anne sat gazing off into space, thinking dreamily of the great virtuoso who had found after years of selfish pleasure and devotion to himself that blood was thicker than water.  She fancied she could picture his pride when he beheld Eleanor and realized that she was his own child, and Eleanor’s rapture when she knew that her father was master of the violin she worshipped.

Suddenly an idea popped into Anne’s head that was a positive inspiration.

“Why not ask him to come down for our concert?” she said, amazed at her own audacity in suggesting such a thing.  “Eleanor need not know about him at all.  She is to play at the concert, you know.  If he hears her play he will realize more fully that she is really his own flesh and blood, and if he has any real fatherly feeling for her it will come to the surface.  That will be the psychological moment in which to bring them together.”

“Anne, you’re a genius!” cried Grace.  “You ought to be appointed Chief Arbiter of Destiny.”

“Margaret,” exclaimed Mrs. Gray, “I believe that Anne’s idea is logical.  Shall you try it!”

“I shall write to Guido at once,” said Miss Nevin, rising.  “Knowing his disposition as I do, it seems that I could find no better way of rousing his interest in Eleanor.  Her love of the violin is a direct inheritance from him, and she may reach his heart through her music.  At any rate, it is worth trying.”

After Miss Nevin’s departure Anne and Grace entertained Mrs. Gray with the promised gossip, and it was well toward ten o’clock before they turned their steps toward home.

The following week was a busy one.  Every spare moment outside school the senior class zealously devoted to the concert.  The High School Glee Club was to sing, and the mandolin and guitar club was to give two numbers.  Nora O’Malley was to sing two songs from a late musical success, and Jessica and Miriam were to play a duet.  James Gardiner, who was extremely proficient on the violincello, was down for a solo, while Eleanor was to play twice.  The crowning feature of the concert, however, was to be contributed by Anne and Eleanor.  Anne was to recite Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden,” and Eleanor was to accompany her on the piano with the music that she had arranged for it.