He used to crush my dreams afterwards! I know my voice was going.

My father was so eager for me to please him, I did my best; but I felt dull, and used to sit and shake my head at my harp, crying; or else I felt like an angry animal, and could have torn the strings.
"Think how astonished I was when my mother came to me to say my father had money in his pockets!--one pound, seventeen shillings, she counted: and he had not been playing! Then he brought home a new violin, and he said to me, 'I shall go; I shall play; I am Orphee, and dinners shall rise!' I was glad, and kissed him; and he said, 'This is Sandra's gift to me,' showing the violin.

I only knew what that meant two days afterwards.

Is a girl not seventeen fit to be married ?" With this abrupt and singular question she had taken an indignant figure, and her eyes were fiery: so that Wilfrid thought her much fitter than a minute before.
"Married!" she exclaimed.

"My mother told me about that.