Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 119
piece he said, 'Go on; play something more.' I
played piece after piece, feeling neither nervous nor
annoyed, though he was at so little pains to conceal
his amusement that he once or twice laughed quite
audibly. A tap just then was heard at the door, and
on Herr Deppe rising to open it, a tall, pale, and
singular-looking young man walked in without saying
a word ; and Herr Deppe having by this time finished
drinking his coffee, the two gentlemen came over to
the piano, and seated themselves side by side, a little
to the right of me.
' Please go on playing,' said Herr Deppe ; and
when I did so, and glanced round at them both, I saw
that the young man was just as much amused as.
Herr Deppe, and yet that, like the latter, his amuse-
ment was sufficiently leavened with interest to stimu-
late rather than to depress me. At length, however,
I came to a pause, and, turning round to Herr Deppe,
waited for him to speak. He did not do so for a
moment or two, and then his words were addressed
rather to the young man than to me. (The latter
was Mr. Frederick Clarke, an American gentleman,
who had some months previously married Anna
Steinecke, Herr Deppe's best pupil.) ' She will never
be able to give up all that—to lay it all aside from
the beginning—^nor could I expect it,' were Herr
Deppe's first words. To which the other rejoined,
' Yet with such gifts, such a memory, such taste, such
feeling, and withal so helpless ! It is indeed a pity.'