yet aggressive shabbiness, where high-arched doorways and wide entries
spoke to better days, and also to a subsequent decay, now openly
admitted in the little placards which dotted them here and there,
bearing the bold-typed words GARCON LOGIS, and dangling bravely
yellow from the windows of the cheap lodgings they proclaimed vacant.
It was very still; the hoarse voice of a fruit-seller crying his wares
in the adjoining streets, was to be heard at intervals, but each time
less distinctly, and from the distance came the faint tones of a
single piano. How different it was in the morning! Then, if, pausing a
moment from his work, he opened the window and leaned out for a brief
refreshment, what a delightful confusion of sounds met his ear! Pianos
rolled noisily up and down, ploughing one through the other, beating
one against the other, key to key, rhythm to rhythm, each in a
clamorous despair at being unable to raise its voice above the rest,
at having to form part of this jumble of discord: some so near at hand
or so directly opposite that, none the less, it was occasionally
possible to follow them through the persistent reiterations of a
fugue, or through some brilliant glancing ETUDE, the notes of which
flew off like sparks; others, further away, of which were audible only
the convulsive treble outbursts and the toneless rumblings of the
bass, now and then cut shrilly through by the piercing sharpness of a
violin, now and then, at quieter moments, borne up and accompanied by
the deep, guttural tones of a neighbouring violoncello. This was
always discovered at work upon scales, uncertain, hesitating scales on
the lower strings, and, heard suddenly, after the other instruments'
genial hubbub, it sounded like some inarticulate animal making uncouth
attempts at expression. At rare intervals there came a lull, and then,
before all burst forth again together, or fell in, one by one, a
single piano or the violin would, like a solo voice in a symphony,
bear the whole burden; or if the wind were in the west, it would