Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

46 Mr MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
not, like the English professors, entrenched himself
behind barriers of inaccessibility.) I called, there-
fore, the very next day, and was shown into a pretty
little salon, where all was neat and elegant and
refined.
The friend of his above alluded to had shown me
an early likeness of Sgambati—a thin, determined-
looking young man, with a remarkable nose, and eyes
which sent out from under drooping eyelids a veiled
and mysterious glance whose meaning one could not
quite define. The door opened, and let in one who,
in the full summer of his manhood, had little of that
early likeness but the eyes. Slightly embonpoint, and
looking as if he had grown up into leaf and flower in
the full sunshine of happy hours, and the benign
smile of the gods, Sgambati presented the appearance
of one in complete harmony with all around him.
He struck one as being both physically and mentally
in perfect balance. His manners were most easy and
engaging ; and on the strength of having ' a mutual
friend ' whom
we both admired, we got into a very
pleasant talk ; but, though much pleased with my
visit to him, I had never got the chance of hinting my
wish to hear him play, for he had received me in a
room where there was neither music nor a pianoforte.
On reaching the hotel, however, it all at once occurred
to me that, even if I were going to Germany, here
was an opportunity for learning something of Liszt's
pianoforte music (I knew from report that Sgambati