Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

AfY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
been only a few weeks in his school. I used to run
down to her drawing-room from my quarters up-
staii's to set her right whenever during the first days
I heard anything go wrong, and I gave her leave to
come and listen to my practice.
That summer, besides playing much of both
Moscheles and Cramer with Henselt, I played
Chopin's Nocturne in C Minor, one in F Sharp
Minor, the Ballade in A Flat, and two of his own
concert studies. But if I had built up hopes of
hearing him play on the Bechstein, I was doomed
to be disappointed. He took a most violent anti-
pathy to the little instrument almost from the first
day he played on it, and during the whole summer it
was only on two occasions that I heard him play an
entire piece on it.
On one of these occasions I met two friends of his,
who told me that he had promised to play some Cramer
studies for them that morning. Though I had not
been invited by Henselt to come, these old and privi-
leged friends of his asked me to join them, telling
me that, as I belonged to the inner and more in-
timate circle of the Villa von Henselt, I should no
doubt be welcome there. But the old Meister was a
strange being. When he saw me come in with the
gentlemen, his salutation was, ' You here ! I am
going to play a few of Cramer's studies for my friend
and these two gentlemen.' It was a delightful morn-
ing ; ensconced quietly in the embrasure of a large