ot have fought about her
if her nose had been quite that long. The Greek nose is not the
adorable nose. The adorable nose is about an eighth of an inch
shorter.

Much of the music of Wagner, it appears, is not suitable to the
piano. Wagner was a composer who could interpret into music such
things as the primitive impulses of humanity--he could have made a
machine-shop into music. But not if he had to work in it. Wagner
was always dealing in immensities--a machine-shop would have put a
majestic lump in so grand a gizzard as that.

There is a mystery about pianos, it seems. Sometimes they have to
be "sent away." That is how some people speak of the penitentiary.
"Sent away" is a euphuism for "sent to prison." But pianos are not
sent to prison, and they are not sent to the tuner--the tuner is
sent to them. Why are pianos "sent away"--and where?

Sometimes a glorious day shines into the most ordinary and useless
life. Happiness and beauty come caroling out of the air into the
gloomy house of that life as if some stray angel just happened to
perch on the roof-tree, resting and singing. And the night after
such a day is lustrous and splendid with the memory of it. Music
and beauty and kindness--those are the three greatest things God
can give us. To bring them all in one day to one who expected
nothing--ah! the heart that received them should be as humble as
it is thankful. But it is hard to be humble when one is so rich
with new memories. It is impossible to be humble after a day of
glory.

Yes--the adorable nose is more than an eighth of an inch shorter
than the Greek nose. It is a full quarter of an inch shorter.

There are women who will be kinder to a sick tramp than to a
conquering hero. But the sick tramp had better remember that's
what he is. Take care, take care! Humble's the word!

CHAPTER XVII

That "mystery about pianos" which troubled Bibbs had been a mystery to
Mr. Vertrees, and it was being explained to him at about the time Bibbs
scribbled the reference to it in his notes. Mary had gone up-stairs upon
Bibbs's departure at ten o'clock, and Mr. and Mrs. Vertrees sat until
after midnight in the library, talking. And in all that time they found
not one cheerful topic, but became more depressed with everything and
with every phase of everything that they discussed--no extraordinary
state of affairs in a family which has al