"The speaker--a scrubby little man--wheeled in the rickety office chair to regard some one hesitating on his threshold. The tones were not agreeable; the proprietor of the diminutive run-down establishment "The St. Cecilia Music Emporium" was not for certain well defined reasons in an amiable mood that morning. He had been about to reach down for a little brown jug which reposed on the spot usually allotted to the waste paper basket when the shadow of the newcomer fell obtrusively not to say offensively upon him. "