CHAPTER XXIII.
All Wilfrid's diplomacy was now brought into play to baffle Mr.
Pericles, inspire Emilia with the spirit of secresy, and carry on his engagement to two women to their common satisfaction.

Adela, whose penetration he dreaded most, he had removed by a flattering invitation to Stornley; and that Emilia might be occupied during his absences, and Mr.Pericles thrown on a false scent, he persuaded Tracy Runningbrook to come to Brookfield, and write libretti for Emilia's operas.

The two would sit down together for an hour, drawing wonderful precocious noses upon juvenile visages, when Emilia would sigh and say: "I can't work!"-- Tracy adding, with resignation: "I never can!" At first Mr.
Pericles dogged them assiduously.

After a little while he shrugged, remarking: "It is a nonsense." They were, however, perfectly serious about the production of an opera, Tracy furnishing verse to Emilia's music.

He wrote with extraordinary rapidity, but clung to graphic phrases, that were not always supple enough for nuptials with modulated notes.