He was a noble fellow, this Violin!--a Tyrolese, the handiwork of the illustrious Steiner.

There was something mysterious in his great age.

How many hands, now dust, had awakened his strings ere he became the Robin Goodfellow and Familiar of Gaetano Pisani! His very case was venerable,--beautifully painted, it was said, by Caracci.

An English collector had offered more for the case than Pisani had ever made by the violin.

But Pisani, who cared not if he had inhabited a cabin himself, was proud of a palace for the barbiton.