terfere with the
effort to sing firmly and delicately? Are you not aware that a light and
agreeable, but at the same time firm and decided, accompaniment
encourages and sustains the singer, and also assists and inspires her?
You ought, in every way, to seek to cultivate in your pupil the feeling
for the right, the true, and the beautiful; but what is the girl of
eighteen to think of _your_ culture and _your_ sentiment, if you pound
the keys as if you were one of the "piano-furies"?

While this is your mode of accompanying the etudes, how then do you
accompany the aria, the song? If, for instance, the pupil is singing
tenderly, and wishes to bring out an artistic, delicate shading, you
take advantage of that occasion to make yourself heard, and to annoy the
singer and the audience with your rough shading. A singing-teacher who
does not take pains to acquire a good, delicate touch, and who neglects
to pay constant attention to it, is wanting in the first requirement;
and this is closely connected with the want of "the three trifles."

CHAPTER X.

VISIT AT MRS. N.'S.

MRS. N.
_Her daughter_ FATIMA, _eighteen years old_.
AN AUNT.
DOMINIE.
_Towards the end of the evening, the piano-teacher_, MR. FEEBLE.

DOMINIE (_rather anxiously to Fatima_). Will you do me the favor, Miss,
to play something on the piano? Your aunt has told me a great deal about
your playing.

FATIMA (_smiling graciously_). But, really, the piano is out of
tune,--so my teacher says.

DOMINIE. But does not your teacher attend to having your piano always
kept in tune?

FATIMA. Mamma says it is too expensive to have it tuned so often; it
gets out of tune again so quickly. It is an old, small-legged piano, as
you see: mamma is always saying, when I am older I shall have a
Chickering. The tuner comes regularly once in three months; the time is
not yet up.

DOMINIE. But is your teacher satisfied with the tuning of your piano?

FATIMA. Well, he has got used to it. It is the same with the other
instruments he teaches on.

MRS. N. Now, pet, play us something. Mr. Dominie likes music; he is a
judge of it; his daughters play too.

FATIMA. But what shall I play, mamma?

MRS. N. You have got heaps of notes there. Mr. Dominie, pray select
something.

DOMINIE. But I don't know which pieces Miss Fatima can master, and which
she has now at her fingers' ends.

AUNT. Pray, Mr. Dominie, choose any thing. They are all fine pieces. It
makes no d