"Be straight with yourself, Ethel," she said, "then Fred Mostyn can do as he likes; you will be all right." She accepted the counsel with a kiss, and then drove to the Holland House for her father.

He was not waiting, as Ruth had supposed he would be, but then she was five minutes too soon.

She sent up her card, and then let her eyes fall upon a wretched beggar man who was trying to play a violin, but was unable by reason of hunger and cold.

He looked as if he was dying, and she was moved with a great pity, and longed for her father to come and give some help.

While she was anxiously watching, a young man was also struck with the suffering on the violinist's face.
He spoke a few words to him, and taking the violin, drew from it such strains of melody, that in a few moments a crowd had gathered within the hotel and before it.