Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 273
and their head. I am also quoting from his o\Tn
expressions. For in the preface to a long work of
his— ^the outcome of his lifelong thought and action
—entitled Lies Experiences d'un Pianiste (which is not
yet in print), he refers to ' victories won on the
battle-field of Art '; and I have been amused by
hearing him say, referring to his different treatment
of different pupils, ' I don't comb all my lambs with
the same comb.'
It was my sorrowful, yet most dearly valued
privilege, to be one of a few who stood beside his
couch and caught his last conscious glances, and
heard the last tones of his voice. That \yonderful
hand lay in mine—so soft, velvet-like, and warm,
that even when death had transfigured his face, and
given it a look at once sweet and solemn, I could not
realize that he was indeed gone until I felt the fingers
stiffen and grow chill in my clasp. It is not my pre-
sent purpose to speak of these last weeks, days, hours,
but just to add to the very slight sketch I have
previously given of the Meister as a teacher and my
relations with him as a pupil, some few traits charac-
teristic of him as a man—traits which have come
under my own personal observation, and (people will
say, women-Kke) which have deepened and intensified
my loving reverence for the Musician, Artist, Meister.
He was not only so good and generous as to give
lessons for long years to those who were qualifying
themselves for becoming teachers—and who could
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