When she was strong enough she resumed her studies with the governess
and also began music. This she enjoyed with the passion that marked her
attitude toward any person or thing she loved.
"Oh, it lets something in me, free!" she confided to Truedale. "I shall
never be naughty or unkind again--I wouldn't dare!"
"Why?" Conning was no devotee of music and was puzzled by Ann's
intensity.
"Why," she replied, puckering her brows in the effort to make herself
clear, "I--I wouldn't be worthy of--of the beautiful music, if I were
horrid."
Truedale laughed and patted her pretty cropped head, over which the new
little curls were clustering.
Life in the old house was full and rich at that time. Conning was, as he
often said, respectably busy and important enough in the affairs of men
to be content; he would never be one who enjoyed personal power.
Lynda, during Ann's first years, had taken a partner who attended to
interviews, conferences, and contracts; but in the room over the
extension the creative work went on with unabated interest. Little Ann
soon learned to love the place and had her tiny chair beside the hearth
or table. There she learned the lessons of consideration for others, and
self-control.
"If the day comes," Lynda told Betty, "when my work interferes with my
duty to Con and Ann, it will go! But more and more I am inclined to
think that the interference is a matter of choice.
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