My Master’s Sister. 173

 

her, and I hoped imuch from its soothing influence.
So I stinted myself in every way that I dared, living
frequently on tea and bread for breakfast, dinner,
and supper, until I had scraped together enough to
buy an old second-hand piano, which Rinaldi and I
brought into the sitting-room before she was up,
placed it open, and waited, watching for the result.
It was successful on the whole. She drew back
startled when first she saw it, but gradually she
came nearer, with a timid, enquiring air, until she
laid a finger on the keys. When once the ice was
thus broken, she sat down and began to play an air
which had been a favourite with my father. When
she reached a certain bar in it, in which they had
differed in opinion as to the harmony of a certain
chord, she hesitated, stopped, and began the air
again. Thus she went on for two or three hours,
never finishing the air, but always stopping short at
the same spot and beginning again. This continued
day after day ; and painful to the nerves as was this
perpetual repetition, I endurec it almost gladly ;
it was a relief after the sombre, unbroken silence
that she had hitherto maintained. A further idea
caused me to express a great desire to learn music ;
and my sister, as I had hoped, undertook to instruct
me, She proved a more ardent than patient in-
structress, often keeping me at it for the whole