But one morning Estelle made a new suggestion.

“There is something I have recalled; yes, it is perhaps of not great importance; yet perhaps again,” she said.  “One day Nina and I, we were speaking of this thing and the other, and she said it was right and proper that a young lady should have a dot—­what is the English?—­no matter.  She said the young lady should bring something towards the—­the management; and she asked how she or I could do that.  Then comes her plan.  She was thinking of it before she arrives in England.  It was to go to America—­to be engaged for concerts—­oh, they pay large, large salaries, if you have a good voice—­and Nina would take engagements for all the big cities, until she got over to San Francisco, and from there to Australia—­a great tour—­a long time—­but at the end, then she has the little fortune, and she is independent, whatever happens.  Marriage?—­well, perhaps not, but she is independent.  Yes, it was Nina’s plan to go away on that long tour; but she comes to England—­she is engaged at the New Theatre—­she practises her little economies—­but not so as it would be in America, and now, now if she wishes to go away for a long, long time, is it not America?  She goes on the long voyage; she forgets—­what she wishes to forget.  Her singing, it is constant occupation; she must work; and they welcome a good voice there—­she will have friends.  Do you consider it not possible?  Yes, it is possible—­for that is to go entirely away, and there is no danger of any one interfering.”

“It’s just frightful to think of,” he said, “if what you imagine is correct.  Fancy her crossing the Atlantic all by herself—­landing in New York unknown to any human being there—­”

“Ah, but do you fear for Nina?” Estelle cried.  “No, no—­she has courage—­she has self-reliance, even in despair—­she will have made preparations for all.  Everywhere she has her passport—­in her voice.  ’I am Miss Ross, from the New Theatre, London,’ she says.  ’How do we know that you are Miss Ross?’ ‘Give me a sheet of music, then.’  Perhaps it is in a theatre or a concert-room.  Nina sings.  ’Thank you, mademoiselle, it is enough; what are the terms you wish for an engagement?’ Then it is finished, and Nina has all her plans made for her by the management; and she goes from one town to the other, far away perhaps; perhaps she has not much time to think of England.  So much the better; poor Nina!”

And for a while he took an eager interest in the American newspapers.  Such of them as he could get hold of he read diligently—­particularly the columns in which concerts and musical entertainments were announced or reported.  But there was no mention of Miss Ross, or of any new singer whom he could identify with her.  Gradually he lost all hope in that direction also.  He did not forget Nina.  He could not; but he grew to think that—­whether she were in America, or in Australia, or in whatever far land she might be—­she had gone away