with perfect ravishment; it is undoubted that the chorus sounded
both in his ears and mine. Then replacing his imaginary instrument
under his left arm with the same hand by which he held it, and
letting his right hand drop with the bow in it, said:]

Well, what do you think of it?

_I._--Wonderful!

_He._--Not bad, I fancy; it sounds pretty much like the others....
[And then he stooped down, like a musician placing himself at the
piano.]

_I._--Nay, I beg you to be merciful both to me and to yourself.

_He._--No, no; now that I have got you, you shall hear me. I will
have no vote that is given without your knowing why. You will say a
good word for me with more confidence, and that will be worth a
new pupil to me.

_I._--But I am so little in the world, and you will tire yourself
all to no purpose.

_He._--I am never tired.

[As I saw that it was useless to have pity on my man, for the
sonata on the violin had bathed him in perspiration, I resolved to
let him do as he would. So behold him seated at the piano, his legs
bent, his head thrown back towards the ceiling, where you would
have thought he saw a score written up, humming, preluding, dashing
off a piece of Alberti's or Galuppi's, I forget which. His voice
went like the wind, and his fingers leapt over the imaginary keys.
The various passions succeeded one another on his face; you
observed on it tenderness, anger, pleasure, sorrow; you felt the
piano notes, the forte notes, and I am sure that a more skilful
musician than myself would have recognised the piece by the
movement and the character, by his gestures, and by a few notes of
airs which escaped from him now and again. But the absurd thing was
to see him from time to time hesitate and take himself up as if he
had gone wrong.]

Now, you perceive, said he, rising and wiping away the drops of
sweat which rolled down his cheeks, that we know how to place our
third, our superfluous fifth, and that we know all about our
dominants. Those enharmonic passages, about which the dear uncle
makes such fuss, they are not like having the sea to swallow; we
can manage them well enough.

_I._--You have given yourself a great deal of trouble to show me
that you are uncommonly clever; but I would have taken your word