‘Feel better now, don’t you?’ Mrs Brindley inquired.

‘Aye, Mrs Bob, I do!’ was the reply.  ‘How do, Bob?’

‘How do?’ responded my host laconically.  And then with gravity:  ’Mr Loring—­Mr Oliver Colclough—­thinks he knows something about music.’

‘Glad to meet you, sir,’ said Mr Colclough, shaking hands with me.  He had a most attractively candid smile, but he was so long and lanky that he seemed to pervade the room like an omnipresence.

‘Sit down and have a bit of cheese, Oliver,’ said Mrs Brindley, as she herself sat down.

‘No, thanks, Mrs Bob.  I must be getting towards home.’

He leaned on her chair.

‘Trifle, then?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘Machine going all right?’

‘Like oil.  Never stopped th’ engine once.’

‘Did you get the Sinfonia Domestica, Ol?’ Mr Brindley inquired.

‘Didn’t I say as I should get it, Bob?’

‘You said you would.’

‘Well, I’ve got it.’

‘In Manchester?’

‘Of course.’

Mr Brindley’s face shone with desire and Mr Oliver Colclough’s face shone with triumph.

‘Where is it?’

‘In the hall.’

‘My hall?’

‘Aye!’

‘We’ll play it, Ol.’

‘No, really, Bob!  I can’t stop now.  I promised the wife—­’

’We’ll play it, Ol!  You’d no business to make promises.  Besides, suppose you’d had a puncture!’

’I expect you’ve heard Strauss’s Sinfonia Domestica, Mr Loring, up in the village?’ Mr Colclough addressed me.  He had surrendered to the stronger will.

‘In London?’ I said.  ‘No.  But I’ve heard of it.’

’Bob and I heard it in Manchester last week, and we thought it ’ud be a bit of a lark to buy the arrangement for pianoforte duet.’

‘Come and listen to it,’ said Mr Brindley.  ’That is, if nobody wants any more beer.’

IV

The drawing-room was about twice as large as the dining-room, and it contained about four times as much furniture.  Once again there were books all round the walls.  A grand piano, covered with music, stood in a corner, and behind was a cabinet full of bound music.

Mr Brindley, seated on one corner of the bench in front of the piano, cut the leaves of the Sinfonia Domestica.

‘It’s the devil!’ he observed.

‘Aye, lad!’ agreed Mr Colclough, standing over him.  ’It’s difficult.’

‘Come on,’ said Mr. Brindley, when he had finished cutting.

‘Better take your dust-coat off, hadn’t you?’ Mrs Brindley suggested to the friend.  She and I were side by side on a sofa at the other end of the room.

‘I may as well,’ Mr Colclough admitted, and threw the long garment on to a chair.  ‘Look here, Bob, my hands are stiff with steering.’

‘Don’t find fault with your tools,’ said Mr Brindley; ’and sit down.  No, my boy, I’m going to play the top part.  Shove along.’