Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

194
MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
with an infant son born after I went to Eussia to
Chicago.
When I left Berlin, in the first week of October, I
was quite under the impression that when I reached
St. Petersburg I should find myself in the midst of
a northern winter. My friend (Henselt's niece) had
the same idea as myself, and she had been very
urgent with me to wear every imaginable garment,
both visible and invisible, which should render me
impervious to the cold, which both she and I
imagined would be intense. This very natural mis-
calculation on her part and mine very nearly, how-
ever, prevented my being discovered by Mademoiselle
Heinrichsen.
•I had heard from Henselt's housekeeper that Made-
moiselle Heinrichsen was no longer young, and that
her hair was getting gray. Accordingly, when I got
out of the cowp'e, and could see no one on the plat-
form whose appearance at all answered to the above
description, I became very anxious. Once, twice,
thrice had I paced the entire length of the platform,
and I knew not what to think, what to do. The
porters, too, were very officious, and every time I laid
my hand-parcels (against which his Excellency had
warned me so earnestly) on a bench, I found them
being carried off by one of the fraternity, who made
signs to me that he was willing to find a cab into
which to put them and their owner. I had to rescue
ijiy parcels, indeed, more than once, not only by