To propitiate him they asked him to bring his flute, and nervously praised the fierce music he made on it.

Miss Barks enjoyed a monopoly of his accompaniments, and there were many who regarded her assiduity as a covert attack upon the widower's name and position.

If so, it was Greek meeting Greek, for with all his taciturnity the vicar of Shanmoor was well able to defend himself.
'Has it begun ?' said a hurried whisper at Elsmere's elbow, and turning, he saw Rose and Agnes on the step of the window, Rose's cheeks flushed by the night breeze, a shawl thrown lightly round her head.
She was answered by the first notes of the flute, following some powerful chords in which Miss Barks had tested at once the strength of her wrists and the vicarage piano.
The girl made a little _moue_ of disgust, and turned as though to fly down the steps again.

But Agnes caught her and held her, and the mutinous creature had to submit to be drawn inside while Mrs.
Thornburgh, in obedience to complaints of draughts from Mrs.Seaton, motioned to have the window shut.

Rose established herself against the wall, her curly head thrown back, her eyes half shut, her mouth expressing an angry endurance.