Madeleine.

But Schilsky thumped his fist on the lid, and said, if Krafft did not
sing it, no one should; and that was the end of the matter. Krafft was
pulled to the piano.

Schilsky took his seat, and, losing his nervousness as soon as he
touched the keys, preluded firmly and easily, with his large, white
hands. Now, every one leaned forward to see him better; especially the
ladies threw themselves into positions from which they could watch
hair and hands, and the slender, swaying figure.

"Isn't he divine?" said the bold-eyed girl on the bed, in a loud
whisper, and hung upon her companion's neck in an ecstatic attitude.

After the diversity of noises which had hitherto interfered with his
thinking connectedly, Maurice welcomed the continuous sound of the
music, which went on without a break. He sat in a listening attitude,
shading his eyes with his hand. Through his fingers, he
surreptitiously watched the player. He had never before had an
opportunity of observing Schilsky so closely, and, with a kind of
blatant generosity, he now pointed out to himself each physical detail
that he found prepossessing in the other, every feature that was
likely to attract--in the next breath, only to struggle with his honest
opinion that the composer was a slippery, loose-jointed, caddish
fellow, who could never be proved to be worthy of Louise. But he was
too down-hearted at what he had learnt in the course of the evening,
to rise to any active feeling of dislike.

Intermittently he heard, in spite of himself, something of