They 'muted' me," he amended,
in deference to her own branch of the profession.
"We came in by the side door about half past nine. It was a dull meeting. I
listened for you. Somebody was playing."
Cope gave a sly smile.
"It must have been the poor disappointed woman who was to have accompanied
me. She had had a list of three or four of my things--to run them over in
her own album, I suppose. Think just how disappointed she must have been to
find that she had the whole field to herself!"
"Oh, musicians--even we poor, despised professionals--are not all like
that. If it had been arranged for me to accompany you with an obbligato, I
shouldn't have been pleased if opportunity had failed me."
"Your contribution would have been more important than hers. And your
substitution for my failure would have given added interest."
The talk, having reached the zone of arid compliment, tended to languish.
They had now reached Learning's side of the trolley-tracks, and rills in
the great morning flood of the scholastic life were beginning to gather
about them and to unite in a rolling stream which flowed toward the campus.
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