The instrument was partly open. Miss Glossop, without taking off her glove, rattled the keys as if to ascertain the power. The young lady took care to make this accidental touch as complete a manifestation as possible of the facility and taste with which her fingers could scramble over the keys. His lordship remarked that the young lady seemed to be quite mistress of the art, and observed that there were books of almost every description of music, and he went so far as to request that she would favour him with a specimen of the tone and compass of the instrument, for he was exceedingly partial to music, and had not yet had the pleasure of hearing any regular performance on that pianoforte since it had been brought down to Smatterton. Miss Glossop blushed deeply at the request, and begged to be excused; but his lordship would take no refusal; and Miss Glossop, thinking that, as the request came from a lord, there could not be so much impropriety in complying with it as if it had been from a stranger of inferior rank, forthwith yielded to the pressing importunity, and sat down. His lordship was not a little amused with the ridiculous airs which the performer assumed, and seeing that there was much vanity and weakness in the constitution of the lady’s mind, he did most wickedly and cruelly encourage her to proceed. Now by the compliments which his lordship paid to the performance, the affectation of the performer was encreased. Then Lord Spoonbill proceeded to intimate a wish that the fair stranger would also add to the beauty of the music by her vocal powers. Thereupon rose another blush, and thereupon followed another refusal. But it is not decorous to refuse the requests of lords so very pertinaciously, and Miss Glossop thought that the music-room was so excellently well constructed for the display of a fine voice, that it would be cruel to herself to deny herself as well as his lordship the gratification of hearing that voice. After therefore as much refusal as she thought due to her dignity, she complied with this request too, and Miss Glossop strained her throat very much to her own admiration and to Lord Spoonbill’s amusement. Lord Spoonbill was certainly not a considerate man; that our readers have already discovered, or they must be obtuse indeed. It was by no means becoming in an hereditary legislator thus to amuse himself at the expense of a vain and weak young woman. But it does sometimes happen, that young men of high rank and of selfish habits think nothing of the pain and mortification which they occasion to others in the pursuit of their own pleasures and amusements. The simple circumstance of preferring one’s own interest to that of another deserves not perhaps so great vituperation as it sometimes receives; but to inflict pain and mortification upon another merely for a transient and slight amusement is base and unfeeling.