weeks, nay, preparatory years of study, has that infernal jig cost
them! What sums has papa paid, what scoldings has mamma
administered ("Lady Bullblock does not play herself;" Sir Thomas
says, "but she has naturally the finest ear for music ever known!");
what evidences of slavery, in a word, are there! It is the
condition of the young lady's existence. She breakfasts at eight,
she does "Mangnall's Questions" with the governess till ten, she
practises till one, she walks in the square with bars round her till
two, then she practises again, then she sews or hems, or reads
French, or Hume's "History," then she comes down to play to papa,
because he likes music whilst he is asleep after dinner, and then it
is bed-time, and the morrow is another day with what are called the
same "duties" to be gone through. A friend of mine went to call at
a nobleman's house the other day, and one of the young ladies of the
house came into the room with a tray on her head; this tray was to
give Lady Maria a graceful carriage. Mon Dieu! and who knows but at
that moment Lady Bell was at work with a pair of her dumb namesakes,
and Lady Sophy lying flat on a stretching-board? I could write
whole articles on this theme but peace! we are keeping Mrs. Walker
waiting all the while.

Well, then, if the above disquisitions have anything to do with the
story, as no doubt they have, I wish it to be understood that,
during her husband's absence, and her own solitary confinement, Mrs.
Howard Walker bestowed a prodigious quantity of her time and energy
on the cultivation of her musical talent; and having, as before
stated, a very fine loud voice, speedily attained no ordinary skill
in the use of it. She first had for teacher little Podmore, the fat
chorus-master at "The Wells," and who had taught her mother the
"Tink-a-tink" song which has been such a favourite since it first