Saxhorn and other brass ordnance at our feet, he
being indifferently skilled in each. The
Reverend Alfred Hoblush, as it fell out, could do a
little on the violoncello, as could his excellent
vicar upon the violin. Only age had
imparted a sort of quaveriness to the reverend
incumbent's tone, which was discovered too
late to admit of his exclusion. There were
whispers too of a contra-basso or double
bass, lying cast away in some upper chamber,
which awful engine Mendelssohn Jackson
promised to have looked up speedily, and
brought down from its dust. Lastly there
were a few floating elements of music, up and
down the neighbourhood,—-mild men who
had had to do with flutes in early life—-
one or two who were familiar with brass
instruments, Sax and poly-twist, who only
needed bringing together, to form a very
available and respectable force.

Finally it was agreed that the various
great works intended for representation
should be put in rehearsal without delay.

There was extraordinary excitement in
the town when it became known that the
Philharmonic Union was an accomplished
fact. Quite a crowd followed the Reverend
Hoblush's violoncello-case, as it was borne
through the street on men's shoulders. But,
curious to say, there was a strange apathy
abroad with regard to the subscription. The
shares were dull in the market, though
Jones went about diligently; whispering,
puffing, stimulating, and otherwise rigging
the market. The constitution of the society
had therefore to be modified; it being thought
better that members alone should have the
privilege of subscribing, and introducing
friends on principles of love and favour,
which happy ordinance at once set the
institution right with the public. Then the
business of rehearsal began.

Properly speaking, there was a rehearsal
en permanence at Mrs. Lightbody's. In the
halls of Tritonville was perpetual concert,
and the hunter bounded from rock to rock
eternally. Locock's unwearing manipulation
of his instrument became a nuisance, crying
aloud to Heaven, and it was whispered in
dissenting circles,—-not without a certain
grim satisfaction,—-that the Reverend
Hoblush was being led away carnally, to the
certain imperilment of his soul and great scandal
of his parish.

Against the day of assembling for first
rehearsal, a very important auxiliary was
known to have arrived at Tritonville; to have
come down specially for the great festival,
it was confidently stated. There was a sort
of awful respect attendant on the name of
Mrs. Grey Malkyn, own aunt to Miss
Bandoline, and trained under the late Mr.
Braham. She had heard that incomparable artist
interpret My Dog and my Gun, in the
cheerful trolling style so much esteemed in
that age; also the lusty, vein-distending
reading of the death of Nelson, when England
was brought to confess that every man that
day had done his duty. She had, as it were, sat
under the great master at the Theatre Royal
Covent Garden, where he, together with
matchless Mistress Mattocks, oft chanted
through Love in a Village, and other diverting
pieces. With such pleasing memories, it
was only natural that Mrs. G. Malkyn should
be always struggling for the restoration of
that defunct but famous style—-hopelessly, it
would seem.

Never shall I forget those earlier meetings
after Mrs. G. Malkyn's arrival—-days of
storm and contention, on which the whole
project had well nigh made shipwreck. For,
it unhappily fell out that Jones also had
strong musical tradition to hold by, and
when great farmers of musical talent brought
round the provinces their troupe of singing
birds, set free from gilded cages at
Haymarket and Lyceum, he contrived to establish
relations with conductors and such folk, being
made free of the little chamber behind the
concert-room, and occasionally introduced to
the singing birds themselves. Therefore did
Jones incline to the modern romantic school,
and was for a step in the Verdi direction.
In short, nothing less than a revival in its
entirety of the famous Troubadour of that
master. But Mrs. G. Malkyn was in strong
dissent, holding that nothing could approach
the florid beauties of such old-established
favourites as Norma, the Druid priestess and
her sisters, and being a person of much
consideration, and having funded and other
moneys, it was resolved to bring out the
injured priestess, who was put in rehearsal
without delay. O, those rehearsals! Who
shall realise to himself the incredible change
they wrought in that circle, once so full of
peace and goodwill. It was astonishing the
heat and temper they stirred up in the breasts
of gentle-minded and inoffensive beings.
There was a fierce and contentious spirit
abroad during those few hours, enough to
scandalise any impartial Christian that might
chance to be present. Thus, Miss Bandoline,
whom I had always held to be about as
sweet-tempered a girl as had ever come in
my way, became of a sudden filled with fury,
and turned quite red in the face, if her air
was taken too slow or too fast, or otherwise
improperly treated. Even the Reverend
Hoblush would, at times, so far cast off his
sacred character as to stamp upon the ground
and brandish his bow fiercely in the air.
His cravat was observed to get loose and his
collar to open, in the excitement of the
moment. But the most painful part of the
whole was when the two leaders—-as Mrs.
Grey Malkyn and Jones might fairly be
styled—-came in hostile collision. They were
to be seen stationed, one on either side of poor
Jackson—-mildest of created beings—-and
over his person were their battles fought. In
the midst of the deafening mélée, Druid
priests, next the window, hoarsely shouting