Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

88 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
would make my home with them during my stay in
Weimar. She had seen the act of homage done to
Liszt by the young singer, and as we all sat there
and talked a little, she inveighed against ' the Liszt
worship ' which was then going on in Weimar. By
the profound silence that followed her words, she
opined, I dare say, that she had confounded us all.
But no sooner was she gone away, than the singer
burst out indignantly to the effect that he would have
Spoken, but feared that when he had once begun he
would have said too much.
'And she is a woman,' he said, ' and I should not
like to have been rude to her; but I had a mind
to tell her that it would be an honour to her not
merely to kiss his hand, but also his feet. Yes,'
added Herr ,
and kiss the hem of his coat !'
' I have seen Tausig kneel to him
Laugh .who will at me, I must own that my sym-
pathies all went with the Liszt worship. And> I was
destined to see a good deal of it the next day, at the
house of the two Fraulein Stahr, whose Sunday after-
noon receptions Liszt nearly always honoured with
his presence.
The way in which I made the acquaintance of these
ladies will rather surprise English people, but it
reflects a pleasing light on the Germans, and is but
one among many instances of the frank, simple, un-
conventional spirit which prevailed amongst all those
who belonged to the Liszt circle in Weimar. At the