JOHN SPRIGGINS _(jovial and narrow-minded, a member of
an ancient musical family)._
MRS. SPRIGGINS _(irritable, envious, and malicious)._
LIZZIE, _their daughter, 13, years old (lively and pert)._
SHEPARD, _her piano-teacher (very laborious)._
DOMINIE, _a piano-master (very stern)._
EMMA, _his daughter, a pianist (silent and musical)._


MRS. SPRIGGINS (_to Dominie_). So this is your daughter who is to give a
concert to-morrow? She is said to have less talent than your eldest
daughter. With her, they say, nothing requires any labor.

DOMINIE. You must ask my eldest daughter herself about that. I have
hitherto held the opinion that both of them played correctly, musically,
and perhaps finely, and yet both differently: that is the triumph of a
musical education. But this cheap comparative criticism is already too
thoroughly worn out. Pray what else have you on your mind?

MRS. S. Have you not yet sent your younger daughter to school? They say
your eldest could neither read nor write at fourteen years of age.

DOMINIE. My daughters always have a private teacher in the house, in
connection with whom I instruct them in music, in order that their
literary education shall occupy fewer hours, and that they shall have
time left for exercise in the open air to invigorate the body; while
other children are exhausted with nine hours a day at schools and
institutes, and are obliged to pay for this with the loss of their
health and the joyousness of youth.