"Sophy, shut up in a back room, glancing down from her work into a sooty little strip of garden with a pump in it. But there I always found her, the same bright housewife; often humming her Devonshire ballads when no strange foot was coming up the stairs, and blunting the sharp boy in his official closet with melody.

I understand that there is a play of words (blunt vs. sharp) but it is not clear to me what it means. I challenge members for a translation that does not speak ill of Sophy's singing.