A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE 159 



decided contrast. Except that she has not parted with 

 her sunny common-sense, she is quite a new person. 

 Of course I could not have objected to it, but I was afraid 

 that she might take it into her head to instruct the Infant 

 in vocal music after the manner of the locustlike sounds 

 that you hear coming over the lowered tops of school 

 windows as soon as the weather grows warm, or else 

 take to practising scales herself, for we had only known 

 the technical part of her calling. In short, we feared 

 that we should be do-re-mi-ou'd past endurance. In- 

 stead of which, scraps of the gayest of ballads float over 

 the knoll in the evening, and the Infant's little shrill 

 pipe is being inoculated with real music, via Mother 

 Goose melodies sung in a delightfully subdued con- 

 tralto. 



From the third day after her arrival people began to 

 call upon Maria. I made such a positive declaration of 

 surrender of all matters pertaining to the household, 

 including curiosity, when Maria took charge, and she 

 in return promised that we should not be bothered with 

 anything not "of vital importance to our interests," 

 that, unless she runs through the housekeeping money 

 before the time, I haven't a ghost of an excuse for asking 

 questions, but I do wonder how she manages ! Also, 

 to whom the shadows belong that cross the south piazza 



