Page:Eliot - Middlemarch, vol. I, 1871.djvu/193

Rh the flute. A man looks very silly playing the flute. And you play so out of tune."

"When next any one makes love to you, Miss Rosamond, I will tell him how obliging you are."

"Why should you expect me to oblige you by hearing you play the flute, any more than I should expect you to oblige me by not playing it?"

"And why should you expect me to take you out riding?"

This question led to an adjustment, for Rosamond had set her mind on that particular ride.

So Fred was gratified with nearly an hour's practice of "Ar hyd y nos," "Ye banks and braes," and other favourite airs from his 'Instructor on the Flute;' a wheezy performance, into which he threw much ambition and an irrepressible hopefulness.