Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

SGAMBATI 71
to Sgambati, and played the piece from beginning to
end very respectably, and with much go and swing.
Liszt was kind enough to suggest that I should play
another piece to him ; but by not doing so, but sunply
saying, ' You are too good ; you have heard enough of
my attempt ' (for I had a keen perception of whose
presence I was in), I got something which Sgambati
told me afterwards did not always fall to the lot of
those who were admitted to Liszt on a letter of intro-
duction. He sat down himself to the pianoforte, and
played a long piece—a concert-study of his own. He
thrilled even more than he astonished me by his
sweet penetrative tone, and the tender pathetic ring
which pervaded the whole. The winter afternoon
sunlight streamed in, and lighted up the silvery hair
that reached down to his shoulders, and I felt as I
listened and looked, and realized that he was aged,-
and therefore could not be with us very long, that I
would gladly give up my life just to add it to his-
precious existence. When he got up from the piano
he ordered tea and toast, and he made me sit down
beside him and talk, and told me in whatever city
I found him I should be welcome, whenever I came.
It was not he, but I, who brought the visit to a close ;
and having heard from me that my sister was waiting
for me at a hotel in the village, he put on his mantle,
and escorted me to her, saying, ' I must see your
sister and the child.'
And now, leaving Liszt for the present,' I return to