Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/49

Rh There is only one shadow on his felicity: music is costly. Completing the description of one of these enchanted evenings, he says:

Pepys does not like paying out money; in which particular he resembles many wealthy music-lovers of his time and our own. Nothing distresses him so much as giving money to an artist, as he ingenuously confesses:

So he contrives to quarrel with his teacher (in such a fashion that the quarrel seems to be the other's fault) so soon as he thinks that he has obtained from him all that he wanted. And when Mr. Berkenshaw has fallen into the snare and broken off his relations with Pepys the latter delights in playing the airs which he has gently wormed out of Mr. Berkenshaw during his lessons:

When there is a question of defending his purse against an artist he has all the wisdom of the serpent. A performer on the viol comes to his house and plays for him "some very fine thing of his own." Pepys is careful not to compliment him too warmly: