h more or less music-books (according to
their convenience), and, so seated, go through a set of double-barrelled
variations upon this or that tune by Herz or Kalkbrenner--I say, far
from receiving any satisfaction at the noise made by the performance,
my too susceptible heart is given up entirely to bleeding for the
performers. What hours, and weeks, nay, preparatory years of study, has
that infernal jig cost them! What sums has papa paid, what scoldings has
mamma administered ("Lady Bullblock does not play herself;" Sir Thomas
says, "but she has naturally the finest ear for music ever known!");
what evidences of slavery, in a word, are there! It is the condition
of the young lady's existence. She breakfasts at eight, she does
"Mangnall's Questions" with the governess till ten, she practises till
one, she walks in the square with bars round her till two, then she
practises again, then she sews or hems, or reads French, or Hume's
"History," then she comes down to play to papa, because he likes music
whilst he is asleep after dinner, and then it is bed-time, and the
morrow is another day with what are called the same "duties" to be gone
through. A friend of mine went to call at a nobleman's house the other
day, and one of the young ladies of the house came into the room with a
tray on her head; this tray was to give Lady Maria a graceful carriage.
Mon Dieu! and who knows but at that moment Lady Bell was at work with
a pair of her dumb namesakes, and Lady Sophy lying flat on a
stretching-board? I could write whole articles on this theme but peace!
we are keeping Mrs. Walker waiting all the while.

Well, then, if the above disquisitions have anything to do with the
story, as no doubt they have, I wish it to be understood that, during
her husband's absence, and her own solitary confinement, Mrs. Howard
Walker bestowed a prodigious quantity of her time and energy on the
cultivation of her musical talent; and having, as before stated, a very
fine loud voice, speedily attained no ordinary skill in the use of it.
She first had for teacher little Podmore, the fat chorus-master at "The
Wells," and who had taught her mother the "Tink-a-tink" song which has
been such a favourite since it first appeared. He grounded her well, and
bade her eschew the singing of all those "Eagle Tavern" ballads in which
her heart formerly delighted; and when he had brought her to a certain
point of skill, the honest little chorus-master said she should