EXPRESSION IN MUSIC. 193 



own affairsj and interesting themselves so much in the affairs of 

 others, a stranger would suppose from the publicity of every trans- 

 action, however trivial, that the good people of Market Mowbray 

 acted and thought with one mind, like the old church horologe by 

 which they daily regulated their own time-pieces. So it was, that 

 not an event could transpire, without the cause and the effect being 

 known from gate to gate. 



The first and most dreaded of this clique was the chaste Miss 

 Martha Tibbs. A victim to the evil eye of curiosity. Miss Tibbs 

 exercised a despotic rule over all the tendrils of the town ; nor 

 could a glance travel from eye to eye without being crossed by the 

 dreaded shadow of this virtuous lady. Miss Martha was a most 

 important person, she inhabited the " big house," where her maid- 

 en aunt had resided for half a century before her. The patroness 

 and queen of Market Mowbray, she exercised a discretionary power, 

 and liad raised lier circle to the enviable height of exclusives. She 

 was a thin, tall, yellow-faced lady, who, in spite of the stubborn- 

 ness of her crisp curls, that hung in wiry circles about her cheeks, 

 would never consent to adopt a cap, " it looked so old maidisk ;" 

 her flat, hard, mahogany-looking bust, shewed that she had little of 

 the milk of human kindness ; and her figure was rendered still 

 more gaunt by her old-fashioned, short- waisted, chintz robe, which 

 dropped over her feet. Her grey eyes were omnipresent, her long 

 pointed nose would smell out the slightest error, while her tongue, 

 like a right Toledo, seemed as if it must wound even the sheath 

 that held it. But the accomplishments of Miss Martha Tibbs were 

 of an order unparalleled in the history of Market Mowbray ; for it 

 is said that she could not only read and write, but even that she 

 could play extempore on the harpsichord. It was Miss Tibbs's 

 highest delight to collect around her the elite of Market Mowbray, 

 and, while they were sipping their coffee or lemonade, to listen to 

 some of her " touching airs,'* sometimes assisted by her dear Dr. 

 Mellitongue and the voice of his supposed daughter. Miss Julia, 

 who was declared to sing divinely whenever she sang in tune. 



Things were in this state at Market Mowbray when one night — 

 remembered long since for the terrific thunder-storm which shook 

 to their foundations the tenements of age — a human being stagger- 

 ed into the Crown and Sausage, and appeared almost dead with 

 alarm and exhaustion ; as he entered the gate of the inn the wind 

 howled still louder, the rain descended in Noachian torrents, the 

 forked lightning (with one prong) followed his course, while the 

 thunder rolled like — anything. The awful stranger seated himself 



VOL. VI. NO. XX. BB 



