No. 3 was floored, wainscotted and glazed, and we had a week's
repose.

By this time No. 1 was furnished, and the parties who had taken it came
in. They were a gouty old gentleman, and his wife, who, report said, had
once been his cook. My daughters' hopes of pleasant neighbours were
disappointed. Before they had been in a week, we found ourselves at
issue: the old gentleman's bed was close to the partition-wall, and in
the dead of the night we could distinctly hear his groans, and also his
execrations and exclamations, when the fit came on him. My wife and
daughters declared that it was quite horrible, and that they could not
sleep for them.

Upon the eighth day there came a note:--

"Mrs Whortleback's compliments to Mr and Mrs ----, and begs that the
young people will not play on the piany, as Mr Whortleback is very ill
with the gout."

Now, my daughters were proficients on the piano, and practised a great
deal. This note was anything but satisfactory: to play when the old
gentleman was ill would be barbarous,--not to play was to deprive
ourselves of our greatest pleasure.

"Oh dear! how very disagreeable," cried my daughters.

"Yes, my dear; but if we can hear his groans, it's no wonder that he
can hear the piano and harp: recollect the wall is only a brick and a
half thick."

"I wonder music don't soothe him," observed the eldest.

Music is mockery to a man in agony. A man who has been broken on the
wheel would not have his last hours soothed by the finest orchestra.
After a week, during which we sent every day to inquire after Mr
Whortleback's health, we ventured to resume the piano and harp; upon
which the old gentleman became testy, and sent for a man with a trumpet,
placing him in the balcony, and desiring him to play as much out of tune
as possible whenever the harp and piano sounded a note. Thus were we at
open hostility with our only neighbour; and, as we were certain if my
daughters touched their instruments, to have the trumpet blowing discord
for an hour or two either that day or the next, at last the piano was
unopened, and the harp remained in its case. Before the year closed, No.
3 became tenanted; and here we had a new annoyance. It was occupied by a
large family; and there were four young ladies who were learning music.
We now had our annoyance: it was strum, strum, all day long; one sister
up, another down; and every one knows what a bore the first lessons in
music are to those who are com