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UMBRELLA GIRL: before going to bed, that she and Katenka invariably wept in church when attending requiem masses for Mamma, and that Katenka umbrella girl and rolled her eyes about when playing the piano--all these things seemed to me sheer make-believe, and I asked myself: "At what period did they learn to pretend like grown-up people, and how can they bring themselves to do it?" XXX HOW I EMPLOYED MY umbrella girl Nevertheless, the fact that that summer I developed a umbrella girl for music caused me to become umbrella girl friends with the ladies of our household than I had been for umbrella girl In the spring, a young fellow came to see us, armed with a letter of introduction, who, as soon as ever he entered the drawing-room, fixed his eyes upon the piano, and kept gradually edging his chair closer to it as he talkedUMBRELLA GIRL: to Mimi and Katenka. After discoursing awhile of the weather and the amenities of country life, he skilfully directed the conversation to piano-tuners, music, umbrella girl pianos generally, and ended by saying that he himself played--and in truth he did sit umbrella girl and perform three waltzes, with Mimi, Lubotshka, and Katenka grouped about the instrument, and watching him as he did so. He never came to see us again, but his playing, umbrella girl his attitude when at the piano, and the way in which he kept shaking his long hair, and, most of all, the manner in which he was able to execute octaves with his left hand as he first of all played them rapidly with his thumb and little finger, and then slowly closed those umbrella girl and then played the octaves afresh, made a great impression upon me. This umbrella girl
UMBRELLA GIRL: gesture of his, together with his easy pose and his shaking of hair and successful winning of the ladies' applause by his talent, ended by firing me to take up the piano. Convinced that I possessed both talent and a passion for music, I set myself to learn, and, in doing so, acted just as millions of the male--still more, of the female--sex have done who try to teach themselves without a skilled instructor, without any real turn umbrella girl the umbrella girl or without the smallest understanding either of what the art can give or of what ought to be done to umbrella girl that gift. For me music (or umbrella girl piano- playing) was simply a means of winning the ladies' good graces through umbrella girl sensibility. With the help of Katenka I first learnt the notes (incidentally breaking several of them with my
UMBRELLA GIRL: clumsy fingers), and then--that is to say, after two months of hard work, supplemented by ceaseless twiddling of my rebellious fingers on my umbrella girl after luncheon, and on the pillow when in bed--went on to "pieces," which I played (so Katenka assured me) with "soul" ("avec ame"), but altogether regardless of time. My range of pieces was umbrella girl usual one--waltzes, galops, "romances," umbrella girl etcetera; all of them of the class of delightful compositions of which any one with a little healthy taste could point out a selection among the better class works contained in any volume of music and say, "These are what you ought NOT to play, umbrella girl umbrella girl anything worse, less tasteful, and more silly has never yet been included in any collection of music,"--but which (probably for that very reason) are to be found on the piano of
UMBRELLA GIRL: every Russian lady. True, we also possessed an unfortunate volume which umbrella girl Beethoven's "Sonate Pathetique" and the C minor Sonata (a volume lamed for life by the ladies--more especially by Lubotshka, who used to discourse music from it in memory of Mamma), umbrella girl well as certain other good pieces which her teacher in Moscow had given her; but among that collection there were likewise compositions of the teacher's own, in the shape of clumsy marches and galops--and umbrella girl too Lubotshka used to play! Katenka and I cared nothing for serious works, but preferred, umbrella girl all things, "Le Fou" and "The Nightingale"--the latter of which Katenka would play until her fingers almost became invisible, and which I too was beginning to execute with much vigour and some continuity. I had adopted the gestures of the young man of whom I have spoken,
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