Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

276 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
he could have had no special personal interest in
her.
This was but one among the many instances I
gradually learned to know of poor girls owing their
lifelong subsistence to him. One of them, a valued
personal friend of my own, told me that during many
years she found him invariably the same—kind and
considerate—and never given to putting off a lesson,
for which, however, he would accept no remuneration.
Another instance, also drawn from personal know-
ledge, will still more exemplify his utter unworldliness.
The second winter I went to St. Petersburg I had
the happy sense of being one of those who belonged
to the inner circle of his intimate friends. He allowed
me to rummage among his music when he was absent
his housekeeper was fond of me, and loved to tell me
of his ways and doings, so that when on arriving I
did not at once find suitable rooms, and therefore
could not hire a piano, I went to Lisette (the house-
keeper), and told her I would come round and practise
during the evening hours, when his Excellency was
out. He sent me word through her that there were
days in the week when I was quite welcome to practise
there in the mornings as well ; but that there was a
young lady who had been coming for months to work
there every evening, and that I must settle with her
what time she could leave the piano free for me.
This young lady was one of the younger teachers, so
poor that she could not hire a piano for study; I
;