She arrived home in a taxi cab. It was the only way to manage. Rosen had paid the cabbie in advance, and the noise she made staggering up the stairs with her newfound burden alerted her father, who came down to the first landing and, in the half light that the single overhead bulb cast on them, said, “What on earth have you got there?”
“A cello, Papa. A 1707 Mattio Goffriler cello.”