“After several hours of the evening had worn away in lengthened expectation, till the assembled party, tired of speculating and talking, began to _yawn_, the old gentleman who usually undertook the _bass_ instrument, was seen to look at his watch, and was heard to murmur between his teeth, ‘What a bore is this! How am I to get home by eleven, if the time goes on in this do-nothing way—and I here since seven o’clock, too! So much for your early invitations;—but they sha’nt catch _me_ again.’ “At length, the host, who had been passing the evening in running about to borrow instruments, and collect the ‘disjecta membra’ of the music, reappears, with a scarlet countenance, and in the last state of perspiring exhaustion—his small and feeble figure tottering beneath the weight of sundry large music-books and a tenor fiddle. ‘Here I am again,’ exclaims he, with an air that is rendered perfectly wild by his exertions: ‘I’ve had a world of trouble to get the _parts_ together; but I’ve managed the business. Gentlemen, you may commence the quartett.’ “‘Ay, ay,’ said Mons. Pattier, the bass-fiddle man, ‘let us begin at once, for we’ve no time to lose—but where’s _my_ part?’ “‘There, there, on the music-desk.’— “‘Come, gentlemen, now let us _tune_.’ “The constituent Amateurs proceed accordingly to the labour of getting into mutual agreement; during which process, the auditory shuffle about, and insert themselves into seats as they can. Already are yawning symptoms of impatience visible among the ladies, to whom the very mention of a quartett furnishes a pretence for the vapours, and who make no scruple to _talk_, for diversion’s sake, with the loungers behind their chairs. Whispering, laughing, quizzing, are freely indulged in, and chiefly at the special expense of the musical _executioners_ themselves. “The enterprising _four_, at length brought into unison, plant themselves severally before their desks. The elderly _basso_ has stuck his circlet of green paper round the top of his candle, for optical protection from the glare: the tenor has mounted his spectacles: the second violin has roughened his bow with a whole ounce of rosin; and the _premier_ has adjusted his cravat so as to save his neck from too hard an encounter with his instrument. “These preliminaries being arranged, and the host having obtained something of a ‘lull’ among the assembly, by dint of loud and repeated exclamations of _hush!_—the First Violin elevates his ambitious bow-arm, directs a look of command to his colleagues, and stamps with his foot. ‘Are we _ready_?’ he enquires, with a determined air.— “‘_I_ have been ready any time these two hours,’ replies Mons. Pattier, with a malcontent shrug of his shoulders.— “‘Stay a moment, gentlemen,’ cries the Second Fiddle; ‘my treble string is down. ’Tis a new string—just let me bring it up to pitch again.’