Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

38 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
private source, as the performance was to take place
in the house of people belonging to the aristocracy,
and the audience was to be very exclusive and select.
But to defer a journey just in order to hear even a
great artist play was the very last thing which would
have suggested itself to my mother. She observed
that it was a pity the concert had not taken place
sooner ; that if he were so wonderful, she would like
me to have heard him if it had been possible. My
musical instincts protested against missing such a
chance ; but common-sense said that I had no right
to make all plans give way to an infatuation which
my family did not share. We spoke no further on
the subject, and were really going to leave Berlin on
the next day but one. But a quite exceptionally
heavy fall of snow supervened. The papers spoke of
trains being stopped midway on their route, and in
places where there was no possibility of getting any-
thing to eat or drink. Our kind friends entreated us
not to risk a journey under such circumstances, and
it was arranged that we should wait in Berlin until
the weather should have become less severe.
Need it be said that, since our journey had been
definitely put off, I at once thought of the Tausig
concert ? My mother, accordingly, asked our friend
if it would still be possible to get us tickets for it.
We heard, however, to our extreme vexation, that all
the tickets had been sold, and that there was not the
slightest chance of procuring even one—in fact, that it