A Rose of Womanhood

“ I am glad you like it. Do you know that I was called after my grandmother and she was called after a girl in a poem? Aunt Janet has never liked my name, although she liked my grand- mother. But I am glad you like both my name and me. I was afraid you would not like me because I cannot speak.”

“ You can speak through your music, Kilmeny.”

She looked pleased. “ How well you understand,” she wrote. “ Yes, I cannot speak or sing as other people can, but I can make my violin say things for me.”

“ Do you compose your own music? ”

he asked. But he saw she did not under-

stand him. “ I mean, did any one ever teach you the music you played here that evening? ”

“ Oh, no. It just came as I thought. It has always been that way. When I was very little Neil taught me to hold the vio- lin and the bow, and the rest all came of itself. My violin once belonged to Neil,

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