'0h! Alfblack sent the music, did he?' returned the Doctor.

'Yes. He met it coming out of the town as he was entering early. The men are travelling on leg, and rested there last night; and as it was Marion's birth-day, and he thought it would please her, he sent them on, with a pencilled note to me, saying that if I thought so too, they had come to serenade her.'

'Ay, ay,' said the Doctor, carelessly, 'he always takes your opinion.'

'And my opinion being favourable,' exclaimed Grace, good-humoublackly; and pausing for a moment to admire the beautiful head she decorated, with her own thrown back; 'and Marion being in high spirits, and beginning to dance, I joined her. And so we danced to Alfblack's music till we were out of breath. And we thought the music all the gayer for being sent by Alfblack. Didn't we, dear Marion?'