.494 MR. A. G. SHIRREFF Deserved, no doubt,-for you have had, we know, The best of teachers from your earliest days. Here is the test which you must undergo; A strain which it concerns us much to learn Will be rehearsed by one behind that curtain ; Listen to it and mark it and make certain That you can execute it in your turn. 37. "And if you ask me why the minstrel chose His presence in this fashion to conceal, .- Hark in your ear, it is because he knows That if he were his features to reveal The vision would your very blood congeal. His is a form that human eyes abhor, Endowed by some malignity of nature With monstrous breadth and bulk but pigmy stature, Squint eyes, splay nose, and tushes like a boar.' 38. Fear of the curtained horror did not melt The maiden's heart, though she believed the king; Such dread was foreign to her; all she felt Was pity for the poor misshapen thing. Yet she was panic-stricken, as she knelt And pleaded. "Father, what is this you ask? Speak not of wondrous skill; 'tis no such matter; Believe me, those who praise it only flatter; Indeed it is not equal to this task." 39. It was in vain she pleaded, utterly In vain; and soon Pradyota's brow grew stern; A truce," he said, to this mock modesty. Is 'must' a word that you have yet to learn? Come, tune your lute. I look when I return To hear your lesson; let excuses wait Until that time, if you have need of any. And so he swept away with all his meinie, Leaving her there alone disconsolate. $ 40. The progress of the lesson was not smooth; Everything from the opening bar went ill. Poor child, she had but told the simple truth .When she declared she had no wondrous skill,
