Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 44

Master Handbook of Acoustics, 7th

Edition F. Alton Everest


Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/master-handbook-of-acoustics-7th-edition-f-alton-eve
rest/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Master Handbook of Acoustics, Seventh Edition F. Alton


Everest

https://ebookmass.com/product/master-handbook-of-acoustics-
seventh-edition-f-alton-everest/

Handbook of Borehole Acoustics and Rock Physics for


Reservoir Characterization Vimal Saxena

https://ebookmass.com/product/handbook-of-borehole-acoustics-and-
rock-physics-for-reservoir-characterization-vimal-saxena/

Handbook of Neurosurgery 7th Edition

https://ebookmass.com/product/handbook-of-neurosurgery-7th-
edition/

Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease 7th Edition


James F. Zachary

https://ebookmass.com/product/pathologic-basis-of-veterinary-
disease-7th-edition-james-f-zachary/
Handbook of radioactivity analysis 4th Edition Michael
F. L'Annunziata (Editor)

https://ebookmass.com/product/handbook-of-radioactivity-
analysis-4th-edition-michael-f-lannunziata-editor/

Keats and Shelley: Winds of Light Kelvin Everest

https://ebookmass.com/product/keats-and-shelley-winds-of-light-
kelvin-everest/

The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 7th edition


Liebling

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-
criminology-7th-edition-liebling/

Painting with Light John Alton

https://ebookmass.com/product/painting-with-light-john-alton/

MECANICA DE MATERIALES 7th Edition David F. Mazurek

https://ebookmass.com/product/mecanica-de-materiales-7th-edition-
david-f-mazurek/
Master Handbook
of Acoustics

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 1 25/06/21 12:26 PM


About the Authors
F. Alton Everest was a leading expert and authority in the field of
acoustics. He was an emeritus member of the Acoustical Society of
America, a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, and a life fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and
Television Engineers. He was cofounder and director of the Science
Film Production division of the Moody Institute of Science, and was
also section chief of the Subsea Sound Research section of the
University of California.
Ken C. Pohlmann is well known as an audio educator, consultant, and
author. He was director of the Music Engineering Technology
program, founder of its Master of Science degree program, and is
professor emeritus, at the University of Miami in Coral Gables,
Florida. He is a fellow of the Audio Engineering Society, a consultant
for numerous audio companies and car manufacturers, and an expert
in patent-infringement litigation. He is author of numerous articles
and books including Principles of Digital Audio (McGraw-Hill), and
coauthor of the Handbook of Sound Studio Construction (McGraw-Hill).
Contributions are included from Peter D’Antonio, Geoff Goacher,
and Doug Plumb.

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 2 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Master Handbook
of Acoustics
F. Alton Everest
Ken C. Pohlmann

Seventh Edition

New York Chicago San Francisco


Athens London Madrid
Mexico City Milan New Delhi
Singapore Sydney Toronto

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 3 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Copyright © 2022, 2015, 2009, 2001 by McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright
Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-26-047360-5
MHID: 1-26-047360-0

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-1-26-047359-9,
MHID: 1-26-047359-7.

eBook conversion by codeMantra


Version 1.0

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trade-
marked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringe-
ment of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in
corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.

Information contained in this work has been obtained by McGraw Hill from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither
McGraw Hill nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither McGraw
Hill nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work
is published with the understanding that McGraw Hill and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render
engineering or other professional services. If such services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be
sought.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work
is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the
work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit,
distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill Education’s prior consent. You
may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to
use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES
OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED
FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA
HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUD-
ING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will
meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill Education nor its licensors
shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages
resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill Education has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work.
Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive,
consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of
the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or
cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
Dedicated to the memory of F. Alton Everest

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 5 25/06/21 12:26 PM


This page intentionally left blank

00_Wohlfarth_FM_pi-xiv.indd 8 03/11/20 3:49 PM


Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
1 Fundamentals of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Simple Harmonic Motion and the Sine Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Sound in Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Particle Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Propagation of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Speed of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Wavelength and Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Complex Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Harmonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Partials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Octaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2 Sound Levels and the Decibel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Ratios versus Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Expressing Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Logarithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Decibels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Reference Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Logarithmic and Exponential Forms Compared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Acoustic Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Using Decibels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Measuring Sound-Pressure Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Sine-Wave Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Electrical, Mechanical, and Acoustical Analogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3 Sound in the Free Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Free Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Sound Divergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Sound Intensity in the Free Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Sound Pressure in the Free Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Free-Field Sound Divergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Sound Fields in Enclosed Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Hemispherical Field and Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

vii

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 7 25/06/21 12:26 PM


viii Contents

4 The Perception of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43


Sensitivity of the Ear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Ear Anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Outer Ear—Pinna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
A Demonstration of Directional Cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Outer Ear—Auditory Canal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Middle Ear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
The Inner Ear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Stereocilia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Loudness versus Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Loudness Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Area of Audibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Loudness versus Sound-Pressure Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Loudness and Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Loudness of Impulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Audibility of Loudness Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Pitch versus Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
An Experiment in Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Missing Fundamental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Timbre versus Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Localization of Sound Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Binaural Localization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Law of the First Wavefront . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Franssen Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The Precedence (Haas) Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Perception of Reflected Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Cocktail-Party Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Aural Nonlinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Subjective versus Objective Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Occupational and Recreational Hearing Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5 Signals, Speech, Music, and Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Sound Spectrograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Vocal Tract Molding of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Formation of Voiced Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Formation of Unvoiced Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Frequency Response of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Directionality of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
String Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Wind Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Nonharmonic Overtones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Dynamic Range of Speech and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Power in Speech and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 8 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Contents ix

Frequency Range of Speech and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84


Auditory Area of Speech and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Noise Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Random Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
White and Pink Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Signal Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Harmonic Distortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Audio Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6 Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Specular Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Flutter Echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Doubling of Pressure at Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Reflections from Convex Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Reflections from Concave Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Reflections from Parabolic Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Whispering Galleries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Standing Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Corner Reflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mean Free Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Perception of Sound Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
The Effect of Single Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Perception of Spaciousness, Images, and Echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Effect of Angle of Incidence, Signal Type, and Spectrum
on Audibility of Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7 Diffraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Diffraction and Wavefront Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Diffraction and Wavelength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Diffraction by Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Diffraction by Apertures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Diffraction by a Slit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Diffraction by a Zone Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Diffraction around the Human Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Diffraction by Loudspeaker Cabinet Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Diffraction by Various Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
8 Refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
The Nature of Refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Refraction in Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Refraction in the Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Refraction in Enclosed Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 9 25/06/21 12:26 PM


x Contents

Refraction in the Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130


Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9 Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
The Perfectly Diffuse Sound Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Evaluating Diffusion in a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Steady-State Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Decay Beats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Exponential Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Spatial Uniformity of Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Geometrical Irregularities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Absorbent in Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Concave Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Convex Surfaces: The Polycylindrical Diffuser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Plane Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
10 Comb-Filter Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Comb Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Superposition of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Tonal Signals and Comb Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Comb Filtering of Music and Speech Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Comb Filtering of Direct and Reflected Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Comb Filters and Critical Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Comb Filters in Multichannel Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Controlling Comb Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Reflections and Spaciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Comb Filters in Microphone Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Comb-Filter Effects in Practice: Six Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Estimating Comb-Filter Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
11 Reverberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Growth of Sound in a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Decay of Sound in a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Idealized Growth and Decay of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Calculating Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Sabine Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Eyring-Norris Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Air Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Measuring Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Impulse Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Steady-State Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Measuring Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Measurement Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Reverberation and Normal Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Analysis of Decay Traces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 10 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Contents xi

Mode Decay Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173


Frequency Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Reverberation Characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Reverberation Time Variation with Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Decay Rate and the Reverberant Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Acoustically Coupled Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Electroacoustically Coupled Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Eliminating Decay Fluctuations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Influence of Reverberation on Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Influence of Reverberation on Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Optimum Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Bass Rise of Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Initial Time-Delay Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Listening Room Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Artificial Reverberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Examples of Reverberation Time Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
12 Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Dissipation of Sound Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Absorption Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Reverberation Chamber Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Impedance Tube Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Tone-Burst Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Mounting of Absorbents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Mid/High-Frequency Absorption by Porosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Glass-Fiber Low-Density Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Glass-Fiber High-Density Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Glass-Fiber Acoustical Tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Effect of Thickness of Absorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Effect of Airspace behind Absorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Effect of Density of Absorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Open-Cell Foams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Drapes as Sound Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Carpet as Sound Absorber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Effect of Carpet Type on Absorbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Effect of Carpet Underlay on Absorbance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Carpet Absorption Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Sound Absorption by People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Sound Absorption in Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Panel (Diaphragmatic) Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Polycylindrical Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Polycylindrical Absorber Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Bass Traps: Low-Frequency Absorption by Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Helmholtz (Volume) Resonators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Perforated Panel Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 11 25/06/21 12:26 PM


xii Contents

Slat Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231


Placement of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Reverberation Time of Helmholtz Resonators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Reducing Room Modes with Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Increasing Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Absorption Module Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
13 Modal Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Early Experiments and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Resonance in a Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Indoor Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Two-Wall Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Frequency Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Room-Mode Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Mode Calculations—An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Experimental Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Mode Decay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Mode Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Mode Pressure Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Mode Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Mode Spacing and Timbral Defects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Audibility of Timbral Defects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Optimal Room Proportions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Bonello Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Splaying Room Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Nonrectangular Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Controlling Problem Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Simplified Axial-Mode Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
14 Schroeder Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Experimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Reflection Phase-Grating Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Quadratic Residue Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Primitive Root Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Performance of Diffraction-Grating Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Reflection Phase-Grating Diffuser Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Flutter Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Application of Fractals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Diffusion in Three Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Diffusing Concrete Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Measuring Diffusion Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Comparison of Gratings with Conventional Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
15 Adjustable Acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Draperies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 12 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Contents xiii

Portable Absorptive Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300


Hinged Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Louvered Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Absorptive/Diffusive Adjustable Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Variable Resonant Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Rotating Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Modular Low-Frequency Absorptive Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
16 Sound Isolation and Site Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Propagation through Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Approaches to Noise Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Airborne Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Transmission Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Effect of Mass and Frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Coincidence Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Separation of Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Porous Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Sound Transmission Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Structureborne Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Noise Transmitted by Diaphragmatic Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Noise and Room Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Site Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
The Noise Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Assessment of Environmental Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Measurement and Testing Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Recommended Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Noise Measurements and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Floor Plan Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Designing within a Frame Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Designing within a Concrete Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
17 Sound Isolation: Walls, Floors, and Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Walls as Effective Noise Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
The Role of Porous Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
The Mass Law and Wall Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Separation of Mass in Wall Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Wall Design Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Improving an Existing Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Flanking Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Gypsum Board Walls as Sound Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Masonry Walls as Sound Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Weak Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Summary of Wall STC Ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Floating Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Floating Walls and Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Resilient Hangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 13 25/06/21 12:26 PM


xiv Contents

Floor/Ceiling Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362


Case Study of Footfall Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Floor/Ceiling Structures and Their IIC Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Floor/Ceilings in Frame Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Floor Attenuation with Concrete Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Plywood Web versus Solid Wood Joists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
18 Sound Isolation: Windows and Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Single-Pane Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Double-Pane Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Acoustical Holes in Glass: Mass-Air-Mass Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Acoustical Holes in Glass: Coincidence Resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Acoustical Holes in Glass: Standing Waves in the Cavity . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Glass Mass and Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Dissimilar Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Laminated Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Plastic Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Slanting the Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Third Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Cavity Absorbent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Thermal Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Example of an Optimized Double-Pane Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Construction of an Observation Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Proprietary Observation Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Sound-Isolating Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Sound Locks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Composite Partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
19 Noise Control in Ventilating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Selection of Noise Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Fan Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Machinery Noise and Vibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Air Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Natural Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Duct Lining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Plenum Silencers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Proprietary Attenuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Reactive Silencers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Tuned Silencers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Duct Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
ASHRAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Active Noise Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
20 Acoustics of Listening Rooms and Home Theaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Playback Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 14 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Contents xv

Planning the Playback Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415


Acoustical Treatment of Playback Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Peculiarities of Small-Room Acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Room Size and Proportion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Low-Frequency Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Modal Anomalies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Control of Modal Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Bass Traps for Playback Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Mid/High-Frequency Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Identification and Treatment of Reflection Points . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Lateral Reflections and Control of Spaciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Loudspeaker Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Listening Room Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Home-Theater Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Controlling Early Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Other Treatment Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
21 Acoustics of Home Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Home Acoustics: Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Home Acoustics: Reverberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Home Acoustics: Noise Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Home Studio Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Home Studio Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Home Studio Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Recording in the Home Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Garage Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
22 Acoustics of Small Recording Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Ambient Noise Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Acoustical Characteristics of Small Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Direct and Indirect Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Role of Room Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Room Modes and Room Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Mode Analysis for Different Room Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Reverberation in Small Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Optimal Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Small Studio Design Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Absorption Design Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Proposed Room Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 15 25/06/21 12:26 PM


xvi Contents

23 Acoustics of Large Recording Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465


Design Criteria of a Large Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Wall Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Section D-D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Section E-E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Sections F-F and G-G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Studio Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Drum Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Vocal Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Sound-Lock Corridor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
24 Acoustics of Control Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Initial Time-Delay Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Live End–Dead End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Specular Reflections versus Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
Low-Frequency Resonances in Control Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Initial Time-Delay Gaps in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Loudspeaker Placement, Reflection Paths, and Near-Field
Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
The Reflection-Free-Zone Control Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Control-Room Frequency Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Outer Shell and Inner Shell of the Control Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Design Criteria of a Control Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Design Example 1: Control Room with Rectangular Walls . . . . . . . . . . 491
Design Example 2: Double-Shell Control Room with Splayed Walls . . . 493
Design Example 3: Single-Shell Control Room with Splayed Walls . . . . 494
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
25 Acoustics of Isolation Booths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Design Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Isolation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
The Small-Room Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Design Example 1: Traditional Isolation Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Axial Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Design Example 2: Isolation Booth with Cylindrical Traps . . . . . . . . . . 505
Acoustical Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Design Example 3: Isolation Booth with Diffusers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Evaluation and Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Live End–Dead End Isolation Booth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 16 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Contents xvii

26 Acoustics of Audiovisual Postproduction Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521


Design Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Design Example 1: Small Postproduction Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Appraisal of Room Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Proposed Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Design Example 2: Large Postproduction Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
Appraisal of Room Resonances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
Monitor Loudspeakers and Early Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
Late Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Proposed Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Mixing Engineer’s Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Video Display and Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
27 Acoustics of Teleconference Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Design Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Shape and Size of the Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Ceiling Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Elevation Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Reverberation Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
28 Acoustics of Large Halls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
Design Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Reverberation and Echo Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Air Absorption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Hall Design for Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Hall Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Absorption Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Ceiling, Walls, and Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Speech Intelligibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Speech Frequencies and Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Subject-Based Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Analytical Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Concert Hall Acoustical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Reverberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Brilliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Seating Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Spaciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Apparent Source Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 17 25/06/21 12:26 PM


xviii Contents

Initial Time-Delay Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557


Bass Ratio and Warmth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Concert Hall Architectural Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Balcony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Ceiling and Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Raked Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Virtual Image Source Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Hall Design Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
A Overview of TDS and MLS Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
B Room Auralization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
C Selected Absorption Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 18 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Introduction

Y
ou hold in your hands, either physically or electronically, the seventh edition of
the Master Handbook of Acoustics. Mr. F. Alton Everest was the original author of
this book. In 1981 he devised the formula for an acoustics book that balanced
theory and practice. Many engineering books sprinkle examples and problems
throughout the text, to inform the reader of practical applications. He improved on that
model by presenting basic theory combined with a significant quantity of pragmatic
information, then attaching entire chapters, comprising a substantial portion of the
book, that are purely devoted to practical examples. These chapters are particularly
essential for anyone building a room with similar characteristics.
Mr. Everest understood that this was the perfect way to teach introductory acoustics
while simultaneously providing practical guidance to anyone undertaking a
construction project. He thus created a valuable tool that we know and trust, a book
that has become a classic. The acoustical engineering community grieved when
Mr. Everest passed away in 2005 at the age of 95.
I was honored when McGraw-Hill asked me to prepare a fifth, a sixth, and now this
seventh edition of the Master Handbook of Acoustics. I had used the handbook since it
was first published, and was well familiar with its value as a teaching text and reference
handbook. Readers who are familiar with another of my books, Principles of Digital
Audio, may be surprised to learn that my passion for digital technology is equaled by
my enthusiasm for acoustics. I taught courses in architectural acoustics (in addition to
classes in digital audio) for 30 years at the University of Miami, where I directed the
Music Engineering Technology program. Throughout that time, I also consulted on
many acoustics projects, ranging from recording studio to listening room design, from
church acoustics to community noise intrusion. As with many practitioners in the field,
it was important for me to understand the fundamentals of acoustical properties, to be
able to articulate those principles to clients, and also to stay current with the practical
applications and solutions to today’s acoustical problems. This essential equilibrium
was the guiding principle of Mr. Everest’s original vision for this book, and I have
continued to seek that same balance. Further, through Mr. Everest’s four editions, and
my three editions, this book has improved steadily to reach a high level of refinement.
Occasionally, and particularly among newbies to the field of acoustics, the question
arises, “Why is it important to study acoustics?” One reason, among many, is that you
will be joining in, and hopefully contributing to, a noble scientific undertaking. Since
antiquity, some of the world’s greatest scientists and engineers have studied acoustics
and its elegant complexities. Greek philosophers including Pythagoras, Aristotle, and

xix

00_Pohlmann_FM_pi-xx.indd 19 25/06/21 12:26 PM


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sink or swim?
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Sink or swim?


a novel; vol. 3/3

Author: Mrs. Houstoun

Release date: December 31, 2023 [eBook #72562]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Tinsley Brothers, 1868

Credits: Sonya Schermann, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SINK OR


SWIM? ***
CONTENTS OF VOLUME III
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

SINK OR SWIM?
A Novel.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

“RECOMMENDED TO MERCY,”

ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18 CATHERINE ST. STRAND.
1868.

[The right of translation and reproduction is reserved.]

LONDON:
ROBSON AND SON, GREAT NORTHERN PRINTING WORKS,
PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.
CONTENTS OF VOL. III.
CHAP. PAGE
I. “He comes too near,” etc. 1
II. A Lover found and lost 21
III. What was Honor doing? 36
IV. Mrs. Beacham writes a Letter 46
V. Honor turns rebellious 54
VI. What, sell Rough Diamond! 62
VII. Mea culpa 77
VIII. John Beacham makes a Discovery 87
IX. John proves his Right 104
X. “As well as can be expected” 111
XI. From lively to severe 119
XII. Mrs. Beacham refuses to forget 131
XIII. Arthur cheers up 136
XIV. Arthur finds himself done 146
XV. Misfortunes never come singly 154
XVI. Out at Sea 164
XVII. Honor makes a new Acquaintance 188
XVIII. John discovers his Loss 202
XIX. Another Escape 208
XX. Poor Sophy! 216
XXI. Suspense 227
XXII. John gives way 237
XXIII. Honor receives a Letter 243
XXIV. The Uses of Adversity 259
XXV. Conclusion 274

SINK OR SWIM?
CHAPTER I.

“HE COMES TOO NEAR,” ETC.


The merrie month of May was speeding onward, and with it—fast and
furious—rattling over stones, and dashing over impediments, ran the fierce
strong current of “London life.” There is an intoxicating influence,
especially on the inexperienced, in the rapid motion, the ever-changing
aspect of pleasure, the atmosphere redolent of poisonous influences, that is
breathed by the upper ten thousand in the month of May, in busy, half-mad
London. By none was this insidious influence more perilously undergone
than by the impressionable, weak-nerved woman who, through her own
folly, considerably aided by “circumstances over which she had no control,”
was standing on the very brink of the abyss, the name of which is “ruin.”
It was now the middle of May, and during a swiftly-passing fortnight
Honor Beacham, continuing her course of semi-deception regarding her
father’s condition, and entirely concealing from the husband whom she
believed to be exclusively absorbed in his own pursuits and interests the
fact that her days and nights were spent in one continued round of exciting
pleasure, went on her way—if not rejoicing, at least in a condition of such
delightful mental inebriation, that she found barely sense or time enough to
ask herself the serious question, if the life which she was leading indeed
were joy.
John’s answer to her letter, written under the influence of hurt feeling,
and penned by a man utterly destitute, not only of the art to make a thing
appear the thing it is not, but of l’eloquence du billet in general, was one
exactly calculated to rouse in a high-spirited nature a dormant inclination to
rebel. In it there was an implied right to command, a right solely arrogated
(to Honor’s thinking) by reason of the writer’s indifference to her
proceedings, and scanty appreciation of her merits. “You will come back, I
suppose,”—so wrote the unwise man, who, on his side, had so egregiously
erred in his estimate of character,—“you will come back when you have
had enough of London. I don’t say to you, ‘come home,’ for women that are
made to do the thing they don’t like are, as mother says, not over and above
pleasant in a house. We are uncommon busy, too, just now; there is painting
to be done, and the chintz to be calendered, so perhaps you are as well out
of the way of the bother.”
Poor John! Could Honor have heard the heavy sigh that broke from his
full heart as he closed the letter; could she, above all, have looked into that
heart and read its secret sorrows, she could not have doubted of her
husband’s love; and perhaps, removed from the glamour of Arthur
Vavasour’s presence, from the mesmeric influence of a passion which was
becoming terribly overpowering in its hourly-gathering strength, she might
have been again a happy woman in the simple fashion and the humble
sphere to which she had been brought up. Such a “chance,” however, was
not for the foolish, beautiful woman who, with half-tender words (for, alas,
it had come to that) from her high-bred adorer lingering on her memory,
read the simple letter, which it had cost so much pain to write, in anger and
in bitterness. Tossing it on her toilet-table with an impatient jerk, she told
herself that John did not care for her. It was nothing to him, she said
mentally, whether she stayed away or not; but as she inly spoke the words,
the fingers of her little gauntleted hand—she had just returned from riding
in the Park—dashed away something very like tears that had gathered on
her long lashes and nothing short of the recollection that she was going in a
few hours’ time to dine at Richmond with Arthur Vavasour and a few other
friends of her father’s prevented her (for it would be dreadful to make her
appearance with red eyes) from indulging in the luxury of a “good cry.”
That party to London’s prettiest suburb—an evening’s enjoyment which
was to include a row towards Twickenham and Teddington on the clear,
flowing river, and a delicious dinner after dusk in one of the charming
cabinet particuliers appertaining to the Star and Garter, and opening on its
pleasant gardens, had been for days looked forward to with keen
anticipations of delight by Honor Beacham. They were to proceed thither in
two open “hired carriages,” in one of which was to be seated Honor and the
Colonel’s wife, while Arthur Vavasour and a dull, unobservant Mr. Foley, a
gentleman, like Pope’s women, “with no character at all,” were to occupy
the opposite seats. In the second carriage the party collected was likely to
be of a far more noisy, as well as a more congenial, description. Mrs. Foley
—a lady a little on the wrong side of thirty, and whose animal spirits, being
apt occasionally, as the saying is, to “get the better of her,” were in their full
swing of triumph on such an occasion as a Richmond dinner—arrived at
Stanwick-street punctually as the clock struck four, arrayed in a toilet
which, but for the still more amazing costume of the young lady with whom
she was accompanied, would have decidedly monopolised the attention and
wonder of every female observer in that quiet neighbourhood. Shaking
themselves clear of the straw and tumble, consequent on their cab-drive
from some distant locality, Mrs. Foley and her bright-eyed sister Dora
Tibbets stood on the doorsteps of No. 14, laughing noisily—more noisily
than ladies of their stamp often laugh when no one of the male sex is
present to stir their spirits up to boiling point. Their dresses, as they stood
there in the bright sunshine of a May afternoon, were of the kind better
suited to a wedding breakfast than to a “quiet dinner,” as Fred Norcott had
described it, in the country. Light and fair and frolicsome they looked;
women with more auburn frizzled hair about their heads than could, by the
most lively and charitable imagination, have been supposed to be their own,
with bright pink roses mingling with their hirsute ornaments, and with a
quantum suff. of poudre de riz softening the lustre of their complexions.
“How smart they are!” Honor whispered in dismay to Arthur, as the two
caught a glimpse of the lively sisters from behind the muslin curtain of the
first-front drawing-room.
“Awfully. It’s a bore they’re coming, but if there had been nobody it
would have been worse,” said Arthur, leaning over her chair, and speaking
in the low tones which always went so thrillingly to her heart. “Imagine! I
might have been unable, all this evening, to say one word alone to you. And
we have so few more days, Honor! You say that you cannot expect a much
longer holiday; but tell me—do you never, never think what will become of
me when you are gone?”
“Don’t talk in that way,” she said, one of her crimson blushes speaking
far more eloquently than her words, while she tried to hide her confusion by
carefully drawing on finger after finger of her delicate Paris gloves. “Don’t
talk in that way; I must talk to these people now. You don’t know them, of
course?” And rising gracefully, she went through the ceremony of
introduction which her father deemed it necessary to perform.
The next arrivals (they dashed up to the door in a hansom, and remained
talking up to the balcony during the few minutes that elapsed before the
descent of the major portion of the party) were Mr. Foley, and a young
gentleman of slightly horsey appearance, but who, nevertheless, contrived
to snip his words and lisp as ridiculously as any foolish would-be fine
gentleman in town. Captain Bowles was the son of a general officer, and
was himself, though of small dimensions, and of anything but military
bearing, a soldier. He was plain of feature, with a large mouth and a
beardless face. His appearance was more that of an inferior order of
counter-jumper than of a guardsman; nevertheless he was petted and made
much of, especially by the fair sex. Mrs. Foley and her sister were “fine
women,” and “fast,” so the general’s son—who would have been voted,
under less favourable circumstances, a little snob—was allowed to stand up
before them with his hands in his trousers pockets like a man; and while he
minced his platitudes with graceful ease, was smiled on as fondly as though
he were a hero and a gentleman.
There could scarcely have been found a more good-natured chaperone,
duenna,—call her what you will,—than the Colonel’s lanky wife, seated
opposite to dull, sleepy Mr. Foley, who, by the way, was an individual of no
particular profession, gaining a precarious livelihood as “director” to one or
two doubtful companies, and having a floating capital in the same. Mrs.
Norcott, under cover of her pink parasol, kept up a dozy conversation with
that harmless man of business, while Arthur Vavasour, who had no right
whatever (seeing that his young wife was in the most delicate of situations
—nervous during his absence, and only comforted by the certainty that he
was within call) to be there at all, had—alas for the credit of poor selfish
human nature!—forgotten every duty, and ignored the sacred claims of
wifehood, for the sake of passing a few blissful hours by the side of the
forbidden woman he adored. And she—that other wife, who still, strange as
it may seem, and eke impossible to many, kept a large corner in her heart
for home and duty, and the rough, tender-hearted man she called her
husband—what were her thoughts, her feelings, as the tempter, with his
bold beseeching eyes fixed on her blushing face, told her, in looks more
dangerous still than words, the bewildering, but as yet only half-welcome
truth that she was all the world to him, and that, to gain her love, he would
cast to the four winds of heaven every tie on earth, as well as every hope of
heaven?
For it had come to that with this “fond, foolish,” passionate young man.
Made of the stuff that loves in wild extremes, unused to put a bridle on his
fierce desires, restrained by no sweet early home-affections, the dear love,
mother-love, that bids the profligate, sometimes in his wildest moments, to
go no further—only a myth to him—with a God above but half believed in,
and himself the deity on earth he worshipped—who can wonder that this
man, vigorous with the strength and health of his one-and-twenty years,
should make no effort to resist the devil that, without resistance, would not
flee from him?
“How glad I am that you remembered the Park,” Honor said, as they, the
carriages following at a foot’s pace, sauntered slowly along the beautiful
wooded brow beyond Pembroke Lodge; “I would not have missed this view
for the world.”
They were together now,—those two who had been better far had the
wide seas divided them—those two who could not but have owned that so it
was, had any put the question to them in the rare sober moments which
nineteen and twenty-one, in the heyday of folly and of love, are blessed
with. The rest had strolled away in pairs; so that Arthur could speak as well
as look his love into the bewildering eyes of his friend’s lovely wife.
“Mad,—yes, I suppose I am mad,” he said, in answer to a half-reproach
from his companion; “but who, I ask, would not be mad—mad as you are
beautiful—seeing you as I do, Honor, nearly every day, every hour? It is my
fate—for by the heaven above me I cannot help it—to look upon your
beautiful face, and see you smile, my love, my darling! Ah, do not, for the
love of all that is good and beautiful, be angry with me! From the moment
that I saw you first, Honor, I felt as I never felt before for mortal woman—I
—”
“Don’t say so. All men say that,” put in Honor, who was more versed in
the theory of love-making than its practice, and who, while she felt the
necessity of checking her admirer’s outpourings, was terribly shy and
untutored in the process. “Besides, Mr. Vavasour,”—gathering courage as
she proceeded,—“it is very wicked—terribly wicked, both for you to talk
and for me to listen to such words. There is your wife at home, poor thing,
—I often think of her,—how unhappy she would be could she only guess
that you said such things to any woman as I have just been wicked enough
to listen to!”
Arthur could scarcely repress a sigh as the image of poor neglected
Sophy, stretched on her luxurious couch in the gorgeously-furnished back
drawing-room in Hyde-park-terrace, presented itself to his mind’s eye. “She
knows nothing, guesses nothing,” he said, with an ineffectual effort at
carelessness. “Where ignorance is bliss, you know, it’s worse than folly to
be wise. I suspect there is a Bluebeard’s closet in almost every house, and
as long as women don’t try to look inside, all goes on smoothly.”
For a moment, whilst Arthur was imparting to his fair companion this
result of his worldly experience, her thoughts glanced back to her own
home, and to the marked exception to her lover’s rule which it afforded. At
the Paddocks—and well did Honor know that so it was—there could be
found no hidden chamber barred off from the investigations of the curious.
The wife of true-hearted John Beacham could pry at her own wondering
will into any and every corner of his big warm heart, and find there no
skeleton of the past, no flesh-covered denizen of the present, warning her
with uplifted finger that he was false.
Very guilty she felt for a second or two, and humbled and odious, as the
consciousness of being a vile deceiver sent a blush to her fair cheek, and
checked any answering words that had risen to her tongue. Time, however,
for useful reflection was denied her. The sound of her father’s voice
announcing that it was five o’clock, and that the boats were waiting at the
Castle-stairs, effectually interrupted a reverie of a more wholesome
description than might, under the circumstances, have been expected; and,
reëntering their respective carriages, the party were soon on their way down
the hill so loved by Cockney pleasure-seekers, and so be sung by nature-
worshipping poets.

Once in the large comfortable wherry which had been hired for the
occasion, Arthur found very little opportunity, beyond that of paying the
most devoted attention to her personal comfort, of making himself
agreeable to his lady-love. That there was one subject, at least, besides
herself of real and almost absorbing interest to Arthur Vavasour soon
became evident to Honor; and that subject was the approaching Derby race.
Since her instalment in Stanwick-street, Honor had heard more talk of that
all-important annual event than—horse-breeder’s wife though she was—she
had listened to through all the many months of her married life; and
naturally enough, seeing that the “favourite” was her father’s property, and
that Arthur Vavasour appeared deeply interested in the triumph of Rough
Diamond, the success of that distinguished animal became one of the most
anxious wishes of Mrs. John Beacham’s heart.
“O, I do so hope he’ll win!” she exclaimed enthusiastically; “he is such a
wonderfully beautiful creature. And he has a brother who, they think, will
be more perfect still;—no, not a brother quite, a half-brother, I think he is;
and I used to watch him every day led out to exercise, looking so wild and
lovely. He is only a year old, and his name is Faust; and they say he is quite
sure to be a Derby horse.”
Poor Honor! In her eagerness on the subject, and her intense love of the
animal whose varied charms and excellences were to be seen in such
perfection in her husband’s home, she had been inadvertently “talking
shop” for the amusement of the spurious fine ladies, whose supercilious
glances at each other were not, even by such a novice as Honor Beacham,
to be mistaken. In a moment—for the poison of such glances is as rapid as
it is insidious—two evil spirits, the spirits of anger and of a keen desire to
be avenged, took possession of our heroine. She saw herself despised, and
—so true is it that we cannot scarcely commit the smallest sin without
doing an injury as well to our neighbours as to ourselves—she resolved, to
the utter extinction of the very inferior beauties near her, to make the most
of the wondrous gift of loveliness which she was conscious of possessing.
Hitherto she had “borne her faculties meekly;” the consciousness that she
was, by marriage, without the pale of the “upper ten thousand” had,
together with an innate modesty which was one of her rarest charms, kept
her silent and somewhat subdued when in what is called “company.” It had
required the looks of contempt which she had seen passing between the
well-got-up sisters to rouse the spirit of display in Honor Beacham’s heart;
but, once aroused, the intoxication of success encouraged her to proceed,
and the demon of Coquetry was found hard indeed to crush.
The row, slow and dreamy, up-stream to Teddington-lock, would, even
had there been no unlawful and much-prized lover—of whom, explain it as
you will, Honor was more than half afraid—by her side, have been simply
delightful. The river was so purely clear that the water-weeds beneath its
pellucid surface showed brightly, freshly green; and then the long low islets,
with the graceful willow-boughs, vivid with the hues of early spring,
dipping their last-opened buds into the laving stream, and the banks,
verdant and fair, and cattle-sprinkled—all combined to make a Breughal-
like picture of spring verdure and beauty.
Notwithstanding a certain amount of horsey conversation, flirting, covert
as well as open, was the order of the afternoon. Both Mrs. Foley and her
sister were adepts at that truly feminine and easily-acquired
accomplishment. To look the thing they meant not, to understand or not
understand the ingenious double entendre, to give the little hope that
hinders from despair, and only the little hope, lest the excited lover should
presume, were arts in which ces dames, the unprofessional demi-monde of
gay middle life, were thoroughly skilled. It required more audacity than
Honor would have previously believed that she possessed to cope with
rivals such as these, but, champagne aidant, she got through the female
duty well; and the dinner which succeeded the aquatic excursion owed not a
little of its success to the lively spirits lending added charms to the powerful
influence of beauty.
The hour of ten had struck by the town clocks, and the many wine-
bottles on the table of No. 3 room were near to emptying, before it occurred
to any of the party therein assembled that the night was fine and warm and
starlight, and that in the gardens of the hotel a fresher, purer air could be
imbibed than that which reminded them somewhat too forcibly of the good
things they had been imbibing.
At a conjugal hint from the Colonel, his watchful and obedient wife
suggested that the moon had risen, and was looking lovely over the river. A
turn on the terrace would be delightful, she thought; and as her proposal
met with no opposition, they made themselves an impromptu drawing-room
under the starry canopy of heaven.
“What a lovely night! how glad I am to have seen this! The moonlight
never looked to me so soft and beautiful before!”
“Never? I am glad of that,” Arthur said, his face very near to Honor’s as
they leant over the stone balustrade and gazed out upon the tranquil scene.
“I may hope then that, for a little while at least, the memory of this night
will linger with you. It is a day that I at least shall find it very hard to forget.
You smile and shake your head. Perhaps you take me for one who knows
nothing of his own mind,—one whom a fresh face can stir into new and
soon-to-be-changed feelings. But, Honor, listen to me—listen while we
have these few moments we can call our own. I tell you that the love I feel
for you is one that will defy all time and space and change. You have never
been loved, my beautiful one, with such a love as this. You would tell me,
were you not an angel, and too pure and good for such a world as this, that
your husband—”
“Hush, hush! please don’t; I cannot bear to hear you speak of him, Mr.
Vavasour,—well, well, Arthur—I know I have been very weak and wicked;
but for my own folly you would never have—have told me that you loved
me; and indeed I did not mean—I—”
He seized both her little hands in his strong grasp, and held them there as
in a vice.
“Honor,” he whispered,—and his voice trembled with concentrated
passion,—“are you going to tell me that I have been a blundering fool, and
that I have mistaken every look and word and smile that led me on to love
you? If so,—but no, I cannot, will not think it possible. Long ago, my
darling,”—and his voice softened into entreaty,—“long ago, when first I
held this precious hand in mine, you might, with cold words and scanty
smiles, have taught me”—and he smiled bitterly—“my place. But that you
did not do, Honor: you know you did not. What your motive was in leading
me on to hope that I was something—a very little—more to you than a
mere acquaintance, you best can say. If it were well meant on your part, all I
can say is that it was cruel kindness; for it will be a hard fall down again to
the place from which your gentle words and smiles had raised me. But once
more, Honor, for the love of Heaven, tell me that you have not trifled with
me. Do not make me lose my faith in every woman. Tell me before we part
to-night that if we were doomed never to meet again you would sorrow a
little, just a very little, for my loss. Tell me that sometimes, when you are
alone, you think of me; tell me”—and he ventured unreproved to steal his
arm round her waist—“tell me that you love me just a very little, Honor, in
return for the heart’s whole devotion that I feel for you.”
Her bosom heaved, and her heart beat very quickly, under the strong firm
pressure of his hand; but for all that—and perhaps some of my readers may
understand the anomaly—the strongest feeling in Honor Beacham’s mind at
that important crisis was one of relief that she was not alone with her
adorer. And yet in one sense she loved him. His touch, his lingering gaze
into the depths of her blue eyes, exercised—and never more so than at that
moment—a strange magnetic influence over her nerves. She could ill have
borne a decree that banished Arthur Vavasour from her society, and yet she
felt that he was to play no actual part in the misty future of her life—the life
which she never doubted she was to spend with John; the life that might be
a tolerably happy one when Mrs. Beacham was gathered—not to her
forefathers, but to the place allotted to her by her dead husband’s side.
Honor, to do her justice, never imagined an existence apart from her
husband. She was not happy at home; the life there was unsuited to her, and
John, she believed, did not love her well enough to care whether his mother
tormented her or not. In London, on the contrary, she did enjoy herself,
wildly, feverishly, but with a zest and an impulse that had nothing in it that
was natural or lasting. When the day came, she longed for the hour which
should bring Arthur Vavasour to her side; but with the longing came a kind
of nervous dread—a fear of his impatience, an alarm as of a hunted animal
at the thought of finding herself within his power—all which symptoms
might have told a more experienced woman that in her love for Arthur
Vavasour there was an alloy which, had he imagined its existence, would
have deprived the longing for possession of more than half its value.
It is often a misfortune to all parties concerned that the same symptoms
are indicative of various and opposite complaints. A blush is as often a sign
of innocence as of guilt; and a beating heart beneath a visibly agitated
bosom may be a token of other emotions besides the tender one of love.
When Arthur felt the throbbing pulse bounding beneath the pressure of
his hand, he never doubted that, had he been tête-à-tête with that most
peerless creature, she would have gladly sighed her love out on his breast,
listening in tender ecstasy to his vows of eternal constancy. Nearer and
nearer, happy in this blessed conviction, to his heart he held her, secured
from observation in a shadowy corner, and safe under the protection of the
remainder of the party, who lingered just out of earshot on the terrace.
Honor, afraid of offending her high-born lover, and sincerely hoping that
never—never under less safe and satisfactory circumstances might a similar
scene be enacted, contrived to stammer out the foolish, false, and guilty
assurance,—an assurance that filled the young lover’s heart with the wildest
hopes—the assurance, namely, that her heart was his, and that in his love
she found her dearest, sweetest happiness!
CHAPTER II.

A LOVER FOUND AND LOST.


“I really am at a loss to make up my mind which is the most extraordinary
—the man behaving in this way without encouragement, or your being so
lost to everything that is—ahem!—due to your position in life as to allow
him to think, to hope, that his proposals—most impertinent ones, I must say
—could meet with anything but anger and contempt.”
Lady Millicent was seated on her presidential sofa, in the room
appropriated in Bolton-square to her especial use. It was a dull, dark,
business-looking apartment. The “third drawing-room” it was called, and in
it milady was wont to receive such visitors as clearly were not there for
purposes of mere pleasure, or with the intention of ephemerally enjoying
themselves—men of law, serious men, with faces fraught with the care that
the craving after six-and-eightpences is wont to impress on the human
countenance divine, were seen entering, clearly with a purpose, the heavy
door (white-painted and gilt, but shabby and tarnished now) that led to
milady’s sanctum. It was a room into which her young daughters rarely
intruded; and when, on the morning in question (it was that of the very day
which Honor passed so feverishly with Arthur Vavasour by her side),
Rhoda, poor, timid, nervous Rhoda, was summoned to an audience with her
awe-inspiring mamma, she made her entrée with a beating heart, and,
though she knew not wherefore, with a strong presentment of evil. The
open letter in Lady Millicent’s hand was scarcely evidence enough to
awaken in her mind anything at all approaching to the truth. Rhoda was as
far as the poles from imagining that the sedate rector of Switcham, the
quiet, unpretending young man, whose “duties” ever seemed so much
above his pleasures, could have so far allowed his mundane feelings, his
passions, that were of the “earth, earthy,” to overpower his well-regulated
mind, as to induce him to offer to the great lady of Gillingham—the
patroness of his living, and one with whom he knew himself to be not a
favourite—his humble proposals for her daughter’s hand.
Standing droopingly in the august presence, and without a word to say
either in her own behalf or that of her co-delinquent, the poor girl listened
in silence to the stern and very bitter words of reprobation which fell from
her mother’s lips. Perhaps until she so listened—until she contrasted the
hard unsympathising nature of the woman to whom she owed her birth with
that of the good, thoroughly-to-be-relied-on character of the man whose
letter, with dimmed eyes and a very pitying heart, she had just contrived to
read and comprehend—she had never rightly known how necessary the
love of him, who for so many months had been her only object and point of
interest at uncongenial Gillingham, had become to her.
“I am well aware—no justly-reproachful words of yours can make me
more so” (thus one sentence of poor George’s letter ran)—“that I have no
right, in a worldly point of view, to hope that you would look otherwise
than contemptuously on my humble offer. I have little besides my deep
affection, and my prayers that God would enable me to contribute to your
beloved daughter’s happiness, to lay before one who deserves every good
gift that could be bestowed upon her. A small, very small private fortune—a
few hundreds a year only—in addition to the income derived from my
living, is all that I possess. But, if I mistake not, Miss Vavasour’s tastes are
simple ones, and she might, God aiding, be happier in the quiet home which
she would deign to share with me than in the turmoil of the great world, and
amongst the gay and rich, of whom it is said that it is hard for them to enter
the kingdom of heaven.”
“Methodistical stuff!” murmured Lady Millicent, turning over the leaves
of a law-book, and delivering herself of the severe comment on her would-
be son-in-law’s epistle at the moment when she rightly guessed that poor
Rhoda had arrived at its conclusion. “Very bad taste, I think, my dear, of
your admirer, condemning us en masse in this summary way. But now, do
tell me,” laying down the pen with which she had been making notes, “what
did you do at Gillingham to bring upon me such a letter as that? I should
have thought—but one lives and learns—that if there existed a girl in the
world who would have abstained from this kind of thing, it was you; and
now I find that—”
“O, mamma!” began poor Rhoda, whose delicacy (and she was
sensitively delicate) was severely wounded by this exordium,—“O,
mamma, I did nothing! Indeed, indeed, I gave no—I mean—I did not lead
—”
And then she stopped, poor girl, from utter inability to make herself
understood by the parent whose cold unwomanly eyes were fixed with such
unassisting scrutiny on her blushing face. There are mothers and mothers,
even as (I was about to say) there are friends and friends: but in using such
a conjunction I was wrong, for of that rare hypostasis there can be but one
variety; degrees of comparison exist not in that particular noun substantive
of the many which signify “to be, to do, and to suffer.” Either a friend’s love
passeth the love of woman, and he sticketh closer than a brother, or he is
that daily-met-with and more generally-useful thing, id est, a good-natured
acquaintance, whose services, should they not chance to interfere with his
own requirements, may possibly be at our disposal. But to return to Rhoda
Vavasour’s natural friend—to the one being who had it in her power, and
whose sacred duty it was, as far as mortal skill can do the heavenly work, to
make the crooked straight and the rough places plain to the weaker and the
tottering vessel, who was less able than herself to bear the burden and the
heat of the day. A few words softly, wisely spoken, a kind caress, the sweet
conviction, in some unknown mysterious way conveyed, that she, the
mother, was the best, the most heaven-deputed guardian for her child,
would have convinced that child, whose experience of life was nil, and who
had seen no man save her brothers whom she could compare with the right-
minded young rector of Switcham, that an engagement with that reverend
gentleman might not be exactly a desirable consummation, or one, save by
the good man himself, prudently as well as devoutly to be wished. Rhoda
was a girl thoroughly amenable to reason, as well as one whom the silken
cords of affection could have led with the lightest, tenderest touch. Delicate
of frame, physically as well as mentally, she could ill bear the wear and tear
of either excitement or worry; and perhaps George Wallingford had said no
more than the truth when he suggested that her life, in the seclusion of a
country parsonage, would probably pass more happily away than were the
nervous girl to be thrown into the whirlpool of stir and fashion, there to be
tossed to and fro amongst the vessels of iron, against which her frailer,
humbler self would be hopelessly, maybe, bruised and broken.
To convince Lady Millicent of this truth would, however, have required
eloquence far greater than that possessed by the lowly-born clergyman, who
certainly had not chosen the very likeliest way in the world to gain his ends.
As milady had truly said, there were but two ways of accounting for the
reverend gentleman’s preposterous conduct, and neither of those two ways
was calculated to throw a roseate hue over the matter. That Rhoda—her
favourite, because her most submissive, daughter—had degraded herself to
the degree of giving encouragement to “the man” for whose audacity no
words were sufficiently severe, caused as much surprise and indignation to
the magnificent widow as if she had systematically and kindly encouraged
her child to pour out into the maternal breast her cares, her sorrows, and her
joys. That a heart, young and love-requiring, will, in default of home
aliment, seek elsewhere for its natural, and in some cases even necessary,
food, this mother, engrossed by her own plans and projects for personal
aggrandisement and power, had never yet suspected. Lady Millicent—a
stay-at-home, “domestic” woman, a “widow indeed,” and one of those
constitutionally prudent matrons against whom the tongue of scandal never
had for a single instant wagged—was precisely one of those individuals
with whom self-deception is the very easiest thing in life. Her hopes and
wishes, her thoughts and fancies, never—that she could truly have said—
soared above or beyond the boundaries of her own property; and the
interests of her children, she had taught herself to believe, were the
groundwork and the motive power of all the hard, unwomanly business that
she had set herself to do.
“You are not aware, perhaps,” she said coldly to the poor girl who stood
unconsciously doubling down and plaiting with her trembling fingers the
fringe of the table-cover that hung near her,—“you are not aware, I daresay,
that, unless I succeed—for the benefit of my younger children—in a law-
suit which is in progress, your fortune, as well as Katherine’s, will be very
trifling indeed. Had your poor father lived, there would, of course, have
been an opportunity of remedying this evil, this injustice,” she added firmly,
and with a stress upon the word which poor Rhoda was far too much
engrossed by her own troubles to notice. “I tell you this, not that you may
suppose that, under any circumstances, you could have been permitted to
disgrace your family by marrying this extraordinarily presumptuous person,
but because I wish you to understand that a good marriage may be
positively necessary, both for you and for Katherine. By the way, now that
we are on this disagreeable subject, will you allow me to ask whether she—
whether your sister, who seems to me to be self-willed and forward enough
for anything—knew of this—this disgraceful entanglement: for
entanglement, Rhoda,” she went on severely, “there must have been. Poor
as my opinion naturally is of the intellect of a person who could write such

You might also like