Thereupon Berkley leaned back in his easychair, and read as follows.

CHAPTER IV.  MUSICAL

SUFFERINGS OF JOHN KREISLER.

“They are all gone!  I might have known it by the whispering, shuffling, coughing, buzzing through all the notes of the gamut.  It was a true swarm of bees, leaving the old hive.  Gottlieb has lighted fresh candles for me, and placed a bottle of Burgundy on the piano-forte.  I can play no more, I am perfectly exhausted.  My glorious old friend here on the music-stand is to blame for that.  Again he has borne me away through the air, as Mephistopheles did Faust, and so high, that I took not the slightest notice of the little men under me, though I dare say they made noise enough.  A rascally, worthless, wasted evening!  But now I am well and merry!  However, while I was playing, I took out my pencil, and on pagesixty-three, under the last system, noted down a couple of good flourishes in cipher with my right hand, while the left was struggling away in the torrent of sweet sounds.  Upon the blank page at the end I go on writing.  I leave all ciphers and sweet tones, and with true delight, like a sick man restored to health, who can never stop relating what he has suffered, I note down here circumstantially the dire agonies of this evening’s tea-party.  And not for myself alone, but likewise for all those who from time to time may amuse and edify themselves with my copy of John Sebastian Bach’s Variations for the Piano-forte, published by Nageli in Zurich, and who find my marks at the end of the thirtieth variation, and, led on by the great Latin Verte, (I will write it down the moment I get through this doleful statement of grievances,) turn over the leaf and read.

“They will at once see the connexion.  They know, that the Geheimerath Rodelein’s house is a charming house to visit in, and that he has two daughters, of whom the whole fashionable world proclaims with enthusiasm, that they dance like goddesses, speak French like angels, and play and sing and draw like the Muses.  The Geheimerath Rodelein is a rich man.  At his quarterly dinners he brings on the most delicious wines and richest dishes.  All is established on a footing of the greatest elegance; and whoever at his tea-parties does not amuse himself heavenly, has no ton, no esprit, and particularly no taste for the fine arts.  It is with an eye to these, that, with the tea, punch, wine, ice-creams, etc., a little music is always served up, which, like the other refreshments, is very quietly swallowed by the fashionable world.

“The arrangements are as follows.—­After every guest has had time enough to drink as many cups of tea as he may wish, and punch and ices have been handed round twice, the servants wheel out the card-tables for the elder and more solid part of the company, who had rather play cards than any musical instrument; and, to tell the truth, this kind of playing does not make such a useless noise as others, and you hear only the clink of money.