All bitterness passed out of his face.

A look of youth and hope dawned in it.
He carried the 'cello back to the circle of chairs.

He placed it where it had stood before; then lay back in his own seat smiling dreamily at the empty chair opposite.
"Helen," he said, "darling, I don't really play the piano, I only strum.
But there is one instrument, above all others, which I have always longed to play.

I have it now.

I own the 'cello I have always loved and longed for; the 'cello on which I used to play a hundred years ago.