Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

52
MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
we instinctively interchanged a glance of inquiry, of
alarm and anxiety. And our mutely expressed fears
were, indeed, but too well founded ;
for in a few more
seconds there was an abrupt pause in the playing,
and the young lady got up from the piano, and,
facing round on the audience as if she knew not what
to do next, she wrung her hands, saying in a most
plaintive and appealing tone, ' Dio mio, non so che
fare !' or some words to the like effect. One of the
professors stepped, however, quickly forward, led her
back to the piano, and laying the music of the piece
which she had been playing on the desk, with gentle
but authoritative gestures bade her resume the per-
formance. With the exception of one or two slight
breaks, she on the whole played the piece very well,
and when it was over the professor shook hands with
her, and the girl, seeming to have quite recovered her
balance, moved away quietly and joined her mother,
who was sitting in the body of the sala. My young
lady neighbour had meanwhile raised her handker-
chief to her eyes, and was weeping bitterly. A boy
of about ten who was sitting near us was sobbing,
poor little fellow ! as if his heart would break (I heard
afterwards that he was a brother of the young pianist).
Signor Alfredo di Lucca, whose name was next but
one in the programme for a sonata of Weber, had
been so overcome by the scene that a friend and
fellow-student brought him out of the concert-room,
and insisted on his having a glass of Vermuth, after