mma at the end of the parlor, depressed and
worried._)

MR. FORTE (_keeps his seat at the piano, and says in French to Mrs.
Gold_). Madam, you have reached the climax of the beautiful in music. I
count it one of the happiest moments of my artistic tour to be allowed
to breathe out my soul at the piano, in the presence of one like
yourself. What a loss, that your position must prevent you from
elevating the German opera to its former greatness, as its most radiant
star!

MRS. GOLD (_by this time quite well_). I must confess that Jenny Lind
never quite satisfied me when she was here. She is, and must always
remain, a Swede,--utterly cold. If she had been educated here, she would
have listened to more passionate models than in Stockholm, and that
would have given the true direction to her sensibility.

MR. FORTE. You are quite right; you have a just estimate of her. In
Paris, where she might have heard such examples, she lived in perfect
retirement. I was giving concerts there at the time; but she refused to
sing in my concerts, and therefore she did not even hear me.

MR. SILVER (_whom the excitement of the singing has at length reached_).
Do you feel inclined now, Madam, to execute with me the duet from "The
Creation," between Adam and Eve?

MRS. GOLD. Here is "The Creation," but we will sing it by and by. Mr.
Forte is just going to play us his latest composition for the left hand,
and some of the music of that romantic, deeply sensitive Chopin.

MR. GOLD (_rushes in from his stock discussion_). Oh, yes! Chopin's B
major mazourka! That was also played at my house by Henselt, Thalberg,
and Dreyschock. Oh, it is touching!

ALL (_except Mr. Silver, Dominie, and Emma_). Oh, how touching!

DOMINIE (_to his daughter_). If he plays it in the same manner in which
he accompanied "True Happiness," you will hear how this mazourka should
_not_ be played. It, by the way, is not at all _touching_: it gives
quite boldly the Polish dance rhythm, as it is improvised by the
peasants in that country; but it is, however, idealized after Chopin's
manner.

(_Mr. Forte plays several perilous runs up and down with various
octave passages, all the time keeping his foot on the pedal; and
connects with these immediately, and without a pause, the mazourka,
which he commences _presto_. He played it without regard to time or
rhythm, but with a constant _rubato_, and unmusical jerks. A few
notes were murmu