{"product_id":"2940015764796","title":"AT THE RELTON ARMS","description":"AT THE RELTON ARMS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was towards the end of a crowded reception in the musician's studio.\u003cbr\u003eMost of the people who had come from a sense of social obligation, and\u003cbr\u003ethey were chiefly the mothers of his fashionable pupils, had left when\u003cbr\u003ethe musician began to play his own compositions; and those who remained\u003cbr\u003ebehind, and occupied the position of the Greek chorus with regard to his\u003cbr\u003eremarks, were his own chosen disciples, who were of course privileged to\u003cbr\u003estay much longer than ordinary acquaintances. The musician, perhaps, had\u003cbr\u003eno effectual means of suggesting their departure; but neither was their\u003cbr\u003ehomage, being very womanly and obvious, unpleasing to him; and when the\u003cbr\u003ewell-dressed Philistines had driven away in their carriages, he\u003cbr\u003eabandoned the attitude of the debonair host and took up that of the\u003cbr\u003eprophet instead, which at once gave a serious turn to the conversation.\u003cbr\u003eHe then propounded his own theories, or somebody else's, at great\u003cbr\u003elength, and the chorus assented with a gentle murmur of approbation\u003cbr\u003ewhenever there was a pause. Occasionally one of the elect would ask for\u003cbr\u003esome music, and the musician would single out a pupil whom he considered\u003cbr\u003equalified to interpret what he had composed; and in the applause which\u003cbr\u003einvariably followed, the performer would be entirely eclipsed by the\u003cbr\u003egreater importance of what she had performed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Isn't it a beautiful thing? Such depth,\" said Mrs. Reginald Routh,\u003cbr\u003emoving away from the piano where she had just been singing the\u003cbr\u003emusician's last song. It was an uncomfortable habit she had of always\u003cbr\u003eanticipating what the other people would have said if she had only given\u003cbr\u003ethem time to speak; and she had acquired it from living many years with\u003cbr\u003ean unmusical though wealthy husband, who only acknowledged his wife's\u003cbr\u003emusical talents by sending large checks annually to the musician. On\u003cbr\u003ethis occasion she caught the eye of some one who had just arrived, and\u003cbr\u003erepeated her remark emphatically; for the new-comer was a stranger who\u003cbr\u003ehad unscrupulously interrupted the last verse of her song, and was now\u003cbr\u003eabsorbed in prolonging the existence of a modicum of bitter tea, one\u003cbr\u003esugar-plum, and a preserved cherry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is it?\" she answered hastily, seeing she was expected to say something.\u003cbr\u003e\"I suppose it is quite good, of course. Who is it by? I suppose you\u003cbr\u003ecan't say, though, without looking; and I haven't really the least\u003cbr\u003edesire to know. Talking of music,\" she continued blandly, chasing the\u003cbr\u003esugar-plum round the saucer, \"I have really had a treat this afternoon\u003cbr\u003eat St. James's Hall. Of course you have often heard Sapolienski? Don't\u003cbr\u003eask me how to pronounce him; I think another of the horrors added to\u003cbr\u003emodern composers is the length of their names. But I'm ashamed to say I\u003cbr\u003ehave never heard him before; I have been abroad, you see, and I am not a\u003cbr\u003ebit musical either. I enjoyed it much more than I expected though, and\u003cbr\u003eyou should have seen the ovation he received at the end, ladies crowding\u003cbr\u003eon to the platform and throwing their rings at him! Oh, no, I am clearly\u003cbr\u003enot musical. But still, as he is the greatest musician of the day....\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084561039600,"sku":"2940015764796","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015764796","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}