(_Dominie wishes to take leave with his daughter._)

MRS. S. (_condescendingly_). I hope you will come to see us again soon.
The next time Lizzie will play you Rosellen's "Tremolo;" and Miss Emma
must play us a piece too.

DOMINIE. You are extremely kind! (_Takes leave._)




CHAPTER VIII.

SINGING AND SINGING-TEACHERS.


_(A Letter to a Young Lady Singer.)_

MY DEAR MISS ----,--You are endowed with an admirable gift for singing,
and your agreeable though not naturally powerful voice has vivacity and
youthful charm, as well as a fine tone: you also possess much talent in
execution; yet you nevertheless share the lot of almost all your sisters
in art, who, whether in Vienna, Paris, or Italy, find only teachers who
are rapidly helping to annihilate the opera throughout Europe, and are
ruling out of court the simple, noble, refined, and true art of singing.
This modern, unnatural style of art, which merely aspires to superficial
effects, and consists only in mannerisms, and which must ruin the voice
in a short time, before it reaches its highest perfection, has already
laid claim to you. It is scarcely possible to rescue your talent,
unless, convinced that you have been falsely guided, you stop entirely