n his three
seniors with the air of a master as he held his bow poised in readiness
to descend upon the strings. His short upper lip and full lower lip came
together firmly, his brows straightened, and his nostrils contracted a
little. Ruth admired him demurely, and he gave her ample opportunity,
for this time he kept his eyes upon the text. She watched him to the
last stroke of the bow, and then, shifting her glance, met the grave,
fixed look of the old man who stood behind his chair. At this, conscious
of the fashion in which her last five minutes had been passed, she
blushed, and to carry this off with as good a grace as might be, she
began to applaud with both hands.

"Bravo, father! bravo! Capital, Mr. Eld! capital!"

"Theer," said Sennacherib, ignoring the compliment, and scowling in
a sort of dogged triumph at the placid old man behind Reuben's chair,
"d'ye think as _that_ could be beat if we spent forty 'ear at it? Theer
wa'n't a fause note from start to finish, and time was kep' like a
clock."

"It's a warmish bit o' work, that hallygro," said old Fuller, in milder
self-gratulation, as he disposed his 'cello between his knees, and
mopped his bald forehead. "A warmish bit o' work it is."

"Come, now," said Sennacherib, "d'ye think as it could be beat? A civil
answer to a civil question is no more than a beggar's rights, and no
less than a king's obligingness."

"It was wonderful well played, Mr. Eld," the old man answered.

"Beat!" said Isaiah. "Why it stands to natur' as it could be beat. D'ye
think Paganyni couldn't play a better second fiddle than I can?"

"Ought to play second fiddle pretty well thyself," returned Sennacherib.
"Hast been at it all thy life. Ever since thee was married, annyway."

"Come, come, come," said the fat 'cello-player. "Harmony, lads, harmony!
How was it, Mr. Gold, as you come to give up the music. Theer's them as
is entitled to speak, and has lived i' the parish longer than I have, as
holds you up to have been a real noble player."

"There's them," the old man answered, "as would think the parish church
the finest buildin' i' the king-dom. But they wouldn't be them as had
seen the glories of Lichfield cathedral."

"I'm speakin' after them as thinks they have a right to talk," said the
other.

"I might at my best day have come pretty nigh to Reuben," the old
man allowed, "though I never was his equal. But as for a real noble
player--"

"Well, well," said Fuller, "it ai