Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 275
however, I went home ; and, after finishing a letter,
came back to Henselt's house, thinking I was to play
to him then. But (first and last time that such a
thing occurred during all the time I knew him) there
had been another appointment made by him for that
same hour, and just as I set off for home, a pupil for
examination from one of the Imperial Institutes had
arrived with her governess. He had been obliged to
give her the hour which he had taken from me ;
and
there was the young teacher still waiting, and Henselt
quite nervous and worried about her, and her loss of
time.
' I have been so stupid to-day,' he said, ' and have
treated you badly ; but you will forgive me, won't
you ? You shall have an hour to-morrow, for I have
no more time to-day.'
I was so sorry, even though I got the lesson from
him the next morning, for to play to him was always
'an event,' something for which one had got one's
self wound up, and even to have it deferred for a
single day was a disappointment, and he knew it.
But what could one do but tell him not to worry ?
It was not until long enough afterwards that I found
out, in quite an accidental manner (and I never told
him that I knew it), that the young lady to whom he
had shown such consideration was one of several
sisters, all of whom earned their living as teachers,
and all of whom had been his free pupils for years.
She was, moreover, a girl of only average ability, and