I am sure she would take a motherly interest in you, both for your own sake and mine.

Your romantic story, instead of doing you injury in England, would make you a great lioness, if you chose to reveal it." "I should dislike that sort of attention," she replied hastily.

"Do not suppose, however, that I am ashamed of my dear mother, or of her lineage; but I wish to have any interest I excite founded on my own merits, not on any extraneous circumstance.

But you have not yet advised me whether to remain on the stage or to retire from it." "If I presumed that my opinion would decide the point," rejoined he, "I should be diffident about expressing it in a case so important to yourself." "You are very delicate," she replied.

"But I conjecture that you would be best pleased if I decided in favor of concert-singing." While he was hesitating what to say, in order to leave her in perfect freedom, she added: "And so, if you will have the goodness to introduce me to your relative, and she is willing to be my patroness, I will try my fortune in England.