&c. &c.
This was all very pretty, no doubt, and as true as most poetical
and musical descriptions, but I felt certain that there must be
something to pay for this flattering entertainment; if you are
considered to be a great man, a present is invariably expected in
proportion to your importance. I suggested to Taher Noor that I
must give him a couple of dollars. "What!" said Taher Noor, "a
couple of dollars! Impossible! a musician of his standing it
accustomed to receive thirty and forty dollars from great people
for so beautiful and honourable a song."
This was somewhat startling; I began to reflect upon the price of
a box at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; but there I was not the
hero of the opera; this minstrel combined the whole affair in a
most simple manner; he was Verdi, Costa, and orchestra all in
one; he was a thorough Macaulay as historian, therefore I had to
pay the composer as well as the fiddler. I compromised the
matter, and gave him a few dollars, as I understood that he was
Mek Nimmur's private minstrel, but I never parted with my dear
Maria Theresa* with so much regret as upon that occasion, and I
begged him not to incommode himself by paying us another visit,
or, should he be obliged to do so, I trusted he would not think
it necessary to bring his violin.
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