Here was the source of her future independence.

Maltravers, it will be remembered, was a musician of consummate skill as well as taste, and Alice's natural talent for the art had advanced her, in the space of months, to a degree of perfection which it cost others--which it had cost even the quick Maltravers--years to obtain.

But we learn so rapidly when our teachers are those we love: and it may be observed that the less our knowledge, the less perhaps our genius in other things, the more facile are our attainments in music, which is a very jealous mistress of the mind.

Mrs.Leslie resolved to have her perfected in this art, and so enable her to become a teacher to others.

In the town of C------, about thirty miles from Mrs.Leslie's house, though in the same county, there was no inconsiderable circle of wealthy and intelligent persons; for it was a cathedral town, and the resident clergy drew around them a kind of provincial aristocracy.