She reached her arms upward as she had once before; she lifted herself a little in his embrace, and laid her cheek against his. "Take me with you, Bob," she whispered. "It is you I love!" "Mariposas!" "Are you glad?--then kiss me again!" _How Composers Work._ BY FRANCIS ARTHUR JONES. One of my correspondents, writing to me on the subject of this article, says that he thinks I have undertaken a "tough job," and I fancy he is partly right. I trust, however, that my efforts have not been altogether futile, and that I have, in a measure, overcome most of the "toughness." It has always appeared to me a curious fact that whereas one so often sees facsimile reproductions of the MSS. of famous authors and others, it is a comparatively rare occurrence to come across the compositions of musical composers treated in the same way, and I therefore determined to undertake the work of placing before the readers of this magazine portions of the MSS. of some of the foremost composers of the day, together with their opinions relative to that art of which they are the masters. It may interest my readers still further to learn that the MSS. were, in most instances, re-written for me by the composers, with the object of their being produced in THE STRAND MAGAZINE. They are given here as specimens of their compositions _when ready for publication_, for the first jottings of a composer are, as a rule, intelligible only to himself. JOSEPH BARNBY. Sir J. Barnby, the late Precentor of Eton College, and newly elected Principal of the Guildhall School of Music, writes:-- "As a rule I do not work at the piano except to test what has already been written down. I have found ideas come most readily in the railway carriage or during a drive, and the time I prefer for composition is the morning." [Illustration: "Sweet and low" Part-song Lord Tennyson Barnby] As to writing on commission he says:-- "I see no objection to a composer writing 'to order,' as long as he sends out nothing of which he does not approve. Handel's 'Dettingen Te Deum,' Mozart's 'Requiem,' Mendelssohn's 'Elijah,' and a hundred other works furnish us with successful examples of this class of composition. "I do not," he continues, "consider the _art_ of composing one which can be acquired (the science may), but such an art is all but useless without serious cultivation." In his modesty, Sir Joseph will give no opinion as to which he considers his best work, but sends, for publication here, a few bars of one of his part-songs which has had the widest acceptance--"Sweet and Low." JOHN FRANCIS BARNETT. Mr. Barnett's method of composing I give in his own words:--