They had always been quite
content with wholesome bread-and-butter, plum cake, and nice hot tea.
They did not require _pate de foie gras_ and champagne, nor did they
understand or really enjoy them. One old lady, in considerable distress,
confided to me the fact that the champagne tasted to her 'like physic
with a fizzle in it.' It made most of them ill, Ronnie, and cost at
least eight times as much as my simple Christmas parties of other years.
So don't go and spend an unnecessary sum on an elaborate, and probably
less useful, instrument. I will write you full particulars when the time
comes. Oh, Ronnie, you will be so nearly home, by then! How shall I
wait?"
"I shall love to feel I have something to do for you in Leipzig," said
Ronnie; "and I enjoy poking about among crowds of queer instruments. I
should like to have played in Nebuchadnezzar's band. I should have
played the sackbut, because I haven't the faintest notion how you work
the thing--whether you blow into it, or pull it in and out, or tread
upon it; nor what manner of surprising sound it emits, when you do any
or all of these things. I love springing surprises on myself and on
other people; and I know I do best the things which, if I considered the
matter beforehand, I shouldn't have the veriest ghost of a notion how to
set about doing. That, darling, is inspiration! I should have played
the sackbut by inspiration; whereupon Nebuchadnezzar would instantly
have had me cast into the burning fiery furnace.
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