Particularly was she a good accompanist, possessing to a marked degree that happy faculty of _accompanying_ a singer: which means that she neither led the way nor lagged behind, being always exactly in sympathetic step--than which nothing is more soul-satisfying to the singer.
It was after the music for the operetta had been well-practised and discussed that Alice Greggory chanced to see one of Billy's own songs lying near her.

With a pleased smile she picked it up.
"Oh, you know this, too!" she cried.

"I played it for a lady only the other day.

It's so pretty, I think--all of hers are, that I have seen.
Billy Neilson is a girl, you know, they say, in spite of--" She stopped abruptly.

Her eyes grew wide and questioning.