Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

SGAMBATI 75
few months, held the foremost place among all
Sgambati's pupils. He had supported himself by
giving lessons ; and such was his zeal, his deadly
determination to conquer the keyboard or die, that he
would play for hours and hours, and think of neither
food nor rest. The result of all this was, that when he
took a cold he had no strength to shake it off, and
when he continued to cough for several weeks, by
degrees all his pupils fell away, their parents believing
that he was consumptive. Italians think this disease
is catching, and they feared that in teaching their
children he might communicate it to them.
'We all tried to help him as well as we could,'
continued Signor E ;
—we could not go on supporting him ;
' but we are ourselves poor
as nearly as possible in a state of starvation.'
and he is now
' But Signor Sgambati—does he know of all this ; and
can he do nothing for the poor fellow ?' I exclaimed.
' Oh yes, signorina ; the professore has been very
kind to P ;
has helped him over and over again.
But what can he do ? It is not to be supposed that
he can undertake to keep and support him.'
E and I talked a little more that morning
about P , and when E was leaving our house,
it was with the understanding that he was to come
back in the evening, to ascertam if I had succeeded in
planning any possible way of helping his friend.
My first move was to try and see Sgambati, to
whose house I accordingly set off at once. It was his