For a moment she stood in the doorway hesitating.
Then she slipped across the carpet without making a sound and sat down in one of the chairs. For an hour she sat very still and silent, listening to him with deep pleasure as he played a large spectrum of pieces, sad, joyful, sweet and melancholy.
It seemed to Lavina that his soul was in every note. In this way he could communicate, but apparently in no other way, and she began to feel sad for him.
Then she realised that he had started to play ‘The Summer Waltz’ again. Moving as though she could not prevent herself, she reached into the low cupboard where her violin was kept, and quietly drew it out.
Very slowly and very softly she began to play, joining in with the Marquis. There was the briefest possible hesitation in his playing, but
