e,
and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from
the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious
drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to
bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the
decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing
beneath it the shape and contour of a violin.

CHAPTER VII

John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a
manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of
news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the
same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it
was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a
violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the
instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered
the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a
little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating
of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the
body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the
instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief
points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation
of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged
it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall
at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the
cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the
wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings
were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body
was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and
softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll
was remarkably bold and free.

The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine
_Pressenda_, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his
guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of
the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by
side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form.
He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the
superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to
convince him that it was undoubtedly an ins