Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

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i8o MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
keeper, Praulein Helmuth, when she took out her
Excellency's two pug dogs for their evening walk.
These high-bred and handsome animals were a pre-
sent from Henselt to his wife ; he brought them from
St. Petersburg to Warmbrunn himself a year or two
before. One of them had a very harsh and un-
musical bark, and after this summer he was, in con-
sequence, put out to board at a little distance—far
enough off for the Meister not to hear his bark. It
must not, however, be imagined that the Meister
disliked the banished one.
Two days before his return to St. Petersburg I
went to his house for my lesson, and was waiting,
when I heard his voice in the next room, speaking
with singular and unusual tenderness. My curiosity
was so much aroused that I ventured to say when he
came in
' Who were you speaking to so kindly, dear
Meister ?'
With a grim smile, and rather a pleasant voice, he
replied, ' Oh, I was talking to the pug.' This was
the banished one, now permitted to return, as his
master was about to depart.
' I never heard you speak like that before, dear
Meister,' I observed.
' You never thought I could have softened my voice
so much,' he ^replied, with a sort of grunt, not dis-
pleased.
The housekeeper told me a good deal about the