Stay, darling. I feel like a
pig--all that money--his fortune. If you are not entitled to touch it,
I am not--"
"You are his child and the only wrong you ever did him was through me."
"Lilly--don't go, darling--"
"Zoe, don't tear me to pieces."
"I'll work, darling, as I've never worked before."
"Zoe, Zoe, go straight to your mark."
"I--I can't realize it, Lilly. To-day! He's going to hear me
to-day--this very afternoon. I--I feel as nervous at the prospect of
singing before you as before him. I--I think I'm the luckiest girl in
the world. Lilly, sometimes I--I--think life has--has sort of cleared
the way for me to walk in its lovely places--you have cleared the way.
But what--what if he doesn't think I've the voice _maestro_ thinks I
have? I couldn't stand that, Lilly--the way you stood it."
"But he will," said Lilly, a memory shaping itself. "Remember your power
begins where mine left off. You heard Du Gass the year before she died,
but you were too young to remember. Your voice is so much--so
infinitely bigger, Zoe, and your knowledge and defiance of life and of
the Auchinlosses--makes me so unafraid for you--"
"Kiss me, Lilly.
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