Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 175
had ' a system,' and I was quite outside of it, and he
would not have anything to do with^ate/«t;or/i;. Still,
he seemed interested in me, sent me Eaff's lovely
Fileuse, edited by himself, with my name written on
it, and told me at the next lesson that on his way to
take a walk ia the country, ia passing by the little
inn where I lived, he had paused a moment to listen
to me as I practised, and that he was pleased with
the way I had set about studying the Fileuse. He
then gave me his own extremely difficult cadenza
from Beethoven's C Minor Concerto, and the lesson
on this was the first regular drill I ever had from
him.
' Why, you are playing that just like a fly,' he
growled ;
' no tone !'
' But I cannot play it louder,' was my rejoinder.
'We shall soon see that,' was his reply; and so
saying he called out in a loud and imperious tone,
' Begin, and with one hand only,' and calling out,
'Again —^
again
— again!' and 'Louder — louder
louder !' he made me repeat the passage in question
at least twenty times before he said, ' Now you may
go on.'
He did not frighten me with his rough manner and
loud voice ; but I was greatly excited, and Frau von
Henselt came in when I was going away, and, patting
my cheek, said, ' You are all in a flame, my dear.'
I went away from this lesson with the impression that
Henselt was interested in me, and really anxious
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