He bought the entire stock of the lavender seller, and threw a shilling to the mysterious singer for every song she sung.

He even offered to give--himself--to me! And oh! I would have taken him as gladly as ever the lavender boy took the half-crown, had I been quite, quite sure of myself! A woman with a vocation ought to be still surer than other women that it is the very jewel of love she is setting in her heart, and not a sparkling imitation.

I gave myself wholly, or believed that I gave myself wholly, to art, or what I believed to be art.

And is there anything more sacred than art ?--Yes, one thing! It happened something in this wise.
The singing had put us in a gentle mood, and after a long peroration from Mr.Beresford, which I do not care to repeat, I said very softly (blessing the Honourable Arthur's vociferous laughter at one of Salemina's American jokes), "But I thought perhaps it was Francesca.

Are you quite sure ?" He intimated that if there were any fact in his repertory of which he was particularly and absolutely sure it was this special fact.
"It is too sudden," I objected.