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Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

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DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 133<br />

any conventional symmetry to her large and by no<br />

means ideally proportioned form. Her dresses,<br />

indeed, both in cut and colour, gave one at once the<br />

impression of a woman who never troubled herself to<br />

do more than buy the first suitable stuff which might<br />

offer itself to her when she entered a shop ; and that<br />

she never did more than just let her measure be taken<br />

for a dress, and then step into it, without any after-<br />

thoughts on the matter.<br />

But it will be of course asked. What was her play-<br />

ing like—was it beautiful, peculiar, masterly ? To<br />

which I reply that it was all these, and that, more-<br />

over, it had a special quality of simple unobtrusive-<br />

ness, which at the first hearing prevented one from<br />

fully realizing all that was in it. Mr. Clarke had<br />

irritated me greatly the first time I heard her play, by<br />

saying, ' If you are smart, you will see that there is<br />

a sincerity, a simplicity, and an unaffected sweetness<br />

in her playing which you will scarcely ever find<br />

approached.'<br />

I could not, and I would not, in the first instance,<br />

accept this judgment of his ; but living in the same<br />

house with her for several weeks, and hearing her<br />

practise as I went up and down stairs, and walked<br />

along the passage which led to their room, I came in-<br />

sensibly under the charm of her truly unaffected and<br />

unobtrusive depths of expression ; while as I stood<br />

beside her when she was playing, and perceived, from<br />

the expression of her face and the ease of her position,

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