'Oh, sir, I perceive your mistake: I am writing a tragedy, and was acting over a scene to myself. To convince you, I will give you a specimen; but you must first understand the plot. It is a tragedy on the German model. The Great Mogul is in exile, and has taken lodgings at Kensington, with his only daughter, the Princess Rantrorina, who takes in needlework, and keeps a day school. _The princess is discovered hemming a set of shirts for the parson of the parish: they are to be marked with a large R. Enter to her the Great Mogul. A pause, during which they look at each other expressively. The princess changes colour several times. The Mogul takes snuff in great agitation. Several grains are heard to fall on the stage. His heart is seen to beat through his upper benjamin._--THE MOGUL _(with a mournful look at his left shoe_). 'My shoe-string is broken.'--THE PRINCESS (_after an interval of melancholy reflection_). 'I know it.' THE MOGUL. 'My second shoe-string! The first broke when I lost my empire: the second has broken to-day. When will my poor heart break?'--THE PRINCESS. 'Shoe-strings, hearts, and empires! Mysterious sympathy!' 'Nonsense, sir,' interrupted Mr Glowry. 'That is not at all like the voice I heard.' 'But, sir,' said Scythrop, 'a key-hole may be so constructed as to act like an acoustic tube, and an acoustic tube, sir, will modify sound in a very remarkable manner. Consider the construction of the ear, and the nature and causes of sound. The external part of the ear is a cartilaginous funnel.' 'It wo'n't do, Scythrop. There is a girl concealed in this tower, and find her I will. There are such things as sliding panels and secret closets.'--He sounded round the room with his cane, but detected no hollowness.--'I have heard, sir,' he continued, 'that during my absence, two years ago, you had a dumb carpenter closeted with you day after day. I did not dream that you were laying contrivances for carrying on secret intrigues. Young men will have their way: I had my way when I was a young man: but, sir, when your cousin Marionetta--' Scythrop now saw that the affair was growing serious. To have clapped his hand upon his father's mouth, to have entreated him to be silent, would, in the first place, not have made him so; and, in the second, would have shown a dread of being overheard by somebody. His only resource, therefore, was to try to drown Mr Glowry's voice; and, having no other subject, he continued his description of the ear, raising his voice continually as Mr Glowry raised his. 'When your cousin Marionetta,' said Mr Glowry, 'whom you profess to love--whom you profess to love, sir--' 'The internal canal of the ear,' said Scythrop, 'is partly bony and partly cartilaginous. This internal canal is--' 'Is actually in the house, sir; and, when you are so shortly to be--as I expect--' 'Closed at the further end by the _membrana tympani_--' 'Joined together in holy matrimony--'