“Would they deprive her of a consolation as innocent as that she obtains from her harp and her piano, in addition to her other sufferings! Your Biberry folk must be particularly hard-hearted, Mrs. Gott.”
“Biberry people are like York people, and American people, and English people, and all other people, I fancy, if the truth was known, Mr. Wilmington. What they don’t like they disapprove of, that’s all. Now, was I one of them that believe Mary Monson did actually murder the Goodwins, and plunder their drawers, and set fire to their house, it would go ag’in my feelings too, to hear her music, well as she plays, and sweet as she draws out the sounds from those wires. Some of our folks take the introduction of the harp into the gaol particularly hard!”
“Why that instrument more than another? It was the one on which David played.”
“They say it was David’s favourite, and ought only to be struck to religious words and sounds.”
“It is a little surprising that your excessively conscientious people so often forget that charity is the chiefest of all the Christian graces.”
“They think that the love of God comes first, and that they ought never to lose sight of his honour and glory. But I agree with you, Mr. Wilmington; ‘feel for your fellow-creatures’ is my rule; and I’m certain I am then feeling for my Maker. Yes; many of the neighbours insist that a harp is unsuited to a gaol, and they tell me that the instrument on which Mary Monson plays is a real antique.”
“Antique! What, a harp made in remote ages?”
“No, I don’t mean that exactly,” returned Mrs. Gott, colouring a little; “but a harp made so much like those used by the Psalmist, that one could not tell them apart.”
“I dare say David had many varieties of stringed instruments, from the lute up; but harps are very common, Mrs. Gott—so common that we hear them now in the streets, and on board the steamboats even. There is nothing new in them, even in this country.”
“Yes, sir, in the streets and on board the boats; but the public will tolerate things done for them, that they won’t tolerate in individuals. I suppose you know that, Mr. Wilmington?”