undertaking possibly painful. No, perhaps not a mother, nor even anelder sister; something more distant than a blood relative withrights, and yet closer. For those contacts free of all duty andresponsibility are also free of all restraints, and may approach asrapidly and as close as they will. And she had very little timeleft, to submit to limitations now. What the boy heard there was noknowing, but he flashed up at her a bright, naked glance, not somuch surprised as alerted, and his hands were abruptly still for aninstant, and he smiled.

“My finger-ends are leather—see!” He spreadhis palms, and flexed his long fingers. “I was harper to myfather’s lord at the manor of Berton for a year and morebefore I entered Ramsey. Hush, now, let me try! But it lacks onecourse, you must hold me excused for the flaws.” There wassomething of indulgence in his voice, too, a soft amusement, as ifto a needlessly solicitous elder who must be reassured of hiscompetence.

He had found the tuning key lying in the chest with theinstrument, and he began to test the gut strings and tighten busilyat the pegs that anchored them. The singing murmur rose like achorus of insects in a summer meadow, and Tutilo’s tonsuredhead stooped over his work in total absorption, while Donata fromher pillows watched him from under half-closed eyelids, the moreintently because he was now paying no heed to her. Yet some intenseintimacy bound them, for as he softened into a passionate privatesmile over his work, so did she over his concentration andpleasure.

“Wait, one of the strings in this broken course is longenough to serve. Better one than none, though you’ll noticewhen the tone thins.”

His fingers, if toughened by the harp, were very nimble and neatas he attached the single string and tightened it gingerly.“There! Now!” He passed a light hand over the strings,and produced a shimmering rill of soft notes. “Wire stringswould be louder and brighter than gut, but this will do verywell.”