“No; but there’s tremendous noise.”
The landlord drew whiffs, blew out the smoke in a long column, and said, smiling, “Wait till we come to the largo molto tranquillo con affettuoso caprizio.”
“What’s that?” asked the bumpkin, in an awestruck tone.
“It’s something writ on the music by the hand of Mr. Puddicombe. The Lord knows what it means!”
The hubbub of the “fugg” came to an end, and the instruments paused, drew a sort of sigh, and, with stately tread, marched in unison largo molto tranquillo con affettuoso caprizio, and stalked through it to the end.
“There’s tune there now, and be blowed,” said the landlord triumphantly.
“It’s the tune of ‘Kitty Alone and I,’” retorted the irreverent countryman, and he began to sing’
“‘There was a frog lived in a well,
Crock-a-mydaisy, Kitty alone;
And a merry mouse lived in a mill,