Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

246 MV MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
we were driving to the same house in which I had
lived a year and a half before, she told me that, if I
had arrived a few days earlier, Henselt himself would
have come to meet me, and that a few evenings
before he had paid her a visit, and had told her to tell
me that, as I could not fix a day for arriving and keep
to it (I had arranged to leave Berlin at a given date,
but had been in some way or other detained), I might
come now when I pleased—he did not care. But I
had now served a long apprenticeship with the
Meister, and only smiled with pleasure when my
friend told me all this. He had one or two dear
and admirable friends, who were his helpers, his
daughters ; but I had a place of my own, and was
content with it.
One evening his Excellency's servant brought e a
huge envelope, which on opening I found to contain a
number of letters, addressed to his Excellency. Some
were from Warmbrunn, others from Bavaria, Germany,
and the various places where he had correspond-
ents. The man who brought me this packet was a
Eussian, who neither spoke nor understood German ;
and as I neither spake nor understood Eussian, it
was not easy for us to understand each other. Still,
he managed to convey to me somehow that his master
wished me to read the letters, and that I was to return
them to him when I joined him in his morning walk.
I was, of course, both touched and gratified by this
proof of the dear Meister's confidence, implying as it