d gentleman, and his wife, who, report
said, had once been his cook. My daughters' hopes of pleasant
neighbours were disappointed. Before they had been in a week, we found
ourselves at issue: the old gentleman's bed was close to the
partition-wall, and in the dead of the night we could distinctly hear
his groans and also his execrations and exclamations, when the fit came
on him. My wife and daughters declared that it was quite horrible, and
that they could not sleep for them.

Upon the eighth day there came a note:--"Mrs Whortleback's compliments
to Mr and Mrs --, and begs that the young people will not play on the
piany, as Mr Whortleback is very ill with the gout."

Now, my daughters were proficients on the piano, and practised a great
deal. This note was anything but satisfactory: to play when the old
gentleman was ill would be barbarous,--not to play was to deprive
ourselves of our greatest pleasure.

"Oh dear! how very disagreeable," cried my daughters.

"Yes, my dear; but if we can hear his groans, it's no wonder that he can
hear the piano and harp: recollect the wall is only a brick and a half
thick."

"I wonder music don't soothe him," observed the eldest.

Music is a mockery to a man in agony. A man who has been broken on the
wheel would not have his last hours soothed by the finest orchestra.
After a week, during which we sent every day to inquire after Mr
Whortleback's health, we ventured to resume the piano and harp; upon
which the old gentleman became testy, and sent for a man with a trumpet,
placing him in the balcony, and desiring him to play as much out of tune
as possible whenever the harp and piano sounded a note. Thus were we at
open hostility with our only neighbour; and, as we were certain if my
daughters touched their instruments, to have the trumpet blowing discord
for an hour or two either that day or the next, at last the piano was
unopened, and the harp remained in its case. Before the year closed,
Number 3 became tenanted; and here we had a new annoyance. It was
occupied by a large family; and there were four young ladies who were
learning music. We now had our annoyance: it was strum, strum, all day
long; one sister up, another down; and every one knows what a bore the
first lessons in music are to those who are compelled to hear them.
They could just manage to play a tune, and that eternal tune was ringing
in our ears from morning to night. We could not send our compliments,