"They couldn't help liking it." Arkwright laughed again.

Just how well they had "liked it" he did not intend to say.

Their remarks had been quite too flattering to repeat even to this very plainly interested young woman--delightful and heart-warming as was this same show of interest, to himself.
"Thank you," was all he said.
Billy gave an excited little bounce in her chair.
"And you'll begin to learn roles right away ?" "I already have, some--after a fashion--before I came here." "Really?
How splendid! Why, then you'll be acting them next right on the Boston Opera House stage, and we'll all go to hear you.

How perfectly lovely! I can hardly wait." Arkwright laughed--but his eyes glowed with pleasure.
"Aren't you hurrying things a little ?" he ventured.
"But they do let the students appear," argued Billy.

"I knew a girl last year who went on in 'Aida,' and she was a pupil at the School.