It is impossible to make Gluck's music anything but a foretaste of heaven, as long as there is any show of accuracy in the way it is rendered. But, then, you must go straight on, and not go over a difficult phrase until you know it. You must play fair. Orpheus would probably only have provoked Cerberus--certainly wouldn't have put him to sleep--if he had practised, and counted, and gone back six bars and done it again. But Cerberus wasn't at 260, Ladbroke Grove Road, on the Tuesday following Mrs. Erskine Peel's musical party, which was the next time Sally went to Laetitia Wilson. And it was as well that he wasn't, for Sally stuck in a passage at the end of one page and the beginning of the next, so that you had to turn over in the middle; and it was bad enough, goodness knew, without that! It might really have been the north-west passage, so insuperable did it seem. "I shall never get it right, I know, Tishy," said the viola. And the violin replied: "Because you never pay any attention to the arpeggio, dear. It doesn't begin on the chord. It begins on the G flat. Look here, now. One--two--three. One--two--three." "Yes, that's all very well. Who's going to turn over the leaf, I should like to know? I know I shall never do it. Not because the nerves of my head are giving way, but because I'm a duffer." "I suppose you know what that young man is, dear?" Sally accepts this quite contentedly, and immediately skips a great deal of unnecessary conversation. "I'm not in love with him, Tishy dear." "Didn't say you were, dear. But I suppose you don't know what he is, all the same." Which certainly seems inconsecutive, but we really cannot be responsible for the way girls talk. "Don't know, and don't want to know. What is he?" "He's from Cattley's." This throws a light on the conversation. It shows that Sally had told Laetitia who she was going to meet at her mother's next evening. Sally is not surprised. "As if I didn't know all about this! As if he didn't tell me his story!" "Like the mock-turtle in Alice?" "Now, Tishy dear, is that an insinuation, or isn't it? Do be candid!" "The mock-turtle told his story. Once, he was a real turtle." "Very well, Tishy dear. That's as much as to say Julius Bradshaw is mock. I can't see where the mockness comes in myself. He told _me_ all about it, plain enough." "Yes--and you know what a rage Mrs. Erskine Peel is in, and says it was an _eclaircissement_." "Why can't she be satisfied with English?... What! Of course, there are _hundreds_ of English equivalents for _eclaircissement_. There's bust-up." "That's only one." "Tishy dear, don't be aggravating! Keep to the point. Why mustn't I have Julius Bradshaw to play with if I like because he's at Cattley's?" "You may, if you _like_, dear! As long as you're satisfied, it's all right." "What fault have you to find with him?" "I! None at all. It's all perfectly right." "You are _the_ most irritating girl."