Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

272 My MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
etc., asked me what money I was taking for my
journey, which had been rather suddenly decided on.
(I mention this as an instance of his kindly and
paternal feeling to those whoi like myself, belonged
to the small circle of his intimate friends.) On my
saying, ' I shall have twenty or thirty roubles over
when I reach the end of my journey,' he said, 'How
can you tell, my dear, what may happen to you on
the way? You must let me lend you at least a
hundred.' I gratefully availed myself of the Meister's
kind forethought ; and, turning into his rooms to take
the money, asked his leave to carry with me on the
journey his copy of Bach's Clavier tempere, from
which I had been playing during the last few weeks,
and told him, in making the request, that it was a
superstition of mine, retained since the days of early
childhood, that by carrying with me some article
which belonged to a friend from whom I was about to
part, I should secure a meeting again.
When the foregoing was penned, little did I dream
that in a few short months the dear Meister would be
called away from amongst, us ! What that loss means
to his pupils and friends, no one living outside of that
circle of which he was the sun and centre can pos-
sibly imagine. If I say. that we feel ourselves to be
like a flock which has lost its shepherd, an army that
has lost its general, I am using no mere figure of
speech, but am only indicating the very real relation
.that subsisted between the members of the school