As Jasper watched the pretty lips, and ever and again hinted the one note, as though it were a low whisper from himself, the voice became less steady, until all at once the singer broke into a burst of tears, and shrieked out, with her hands over her eyes: 'I can't bear this! I am frightened! Take me away!' With one swift turn of her lithe figures Helena laid the little beauty on a sofa, as if she had never caught her up.

Then, on one knee beside her, and with one hand upon her rosy mouth, while with the other she appealed to all the rest, Helena said to them: 'It's nothing; it's all over; don't speak to her for one minute, and she is well!' Jasper's hands had, in the same instant, lifted themselves from the keys, and were now poised above them, as though he waited to resume.

In that attitude he yet sat quiet: not even looking round, when all the rest had changed their places and were reassuring one another.
'Pussy's not used to an audience; that's the fact,' said Edwin Drood.
'She got nervous, and couldn't hold out.

Besides, Jack, you are such a conscientious master, and require so much, that I believe you make her afraid of you.

No wonder.' 'No wonder,' repeated Helena.
'There, Jack, you hear! You would be afraid of him, under similar circumstances, wouldn't you, Miss Landless ?' 'Not under any circumstances,' returned Helena.
Jasper brought down his hands, looked over his shoulder, and begged to thank Miss Landless for her vindication of his character.