Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 249
He gave me a letter to Mr. Peterson on the follow-
ing day, and three or four days afterwards they sent
me the pianoforte, My morning walks above alluded
to had not yet begun, so I went at the time when he
was always accessible, i-e.y after breakfast, to tell him
that my piano had come ; and, according to his usual
fashion, he just came into the anteroom, said, ' It is
you !' looked kind and pleasant, and added, ' I will be
with you a little after two to-day.' I turned at once
to go away, as one must always do with the Meister,
who (especially in the morning hours) never tolerated
a superfluous word, and was already in the hall, when,
to my surprise, he caUed me back, and, passing into
his sanctum, motioned me to follow him, saying,
' Come in here for a minute.' As I walked in after
him, he had already seated himself at his dumb
practising piano, and was soon arduously absorbed
in wrestling with a technical tone-problem. I was
so intensely interested, and so profoundly suggestive
was every movement of those marvellous fingers,
hands, and wrists, that I would have willingly
watched him for hours. I suppose I stood there
for a quarter of an hour or more; he glanced once
or twice at me during this time in a scrutinizing
manner, and I knew full well that if I had, by taking
a seat, shown either that I expected to remain there,
or was tired of standing, he would then and there
have risen and. sent me away. But to observe the
Meister at work was a privilege of which I showed my