ce I
have to learn, and one exercise to invent on the dominant and
sub-dominant, are soon done; and then the dinner will taste all the
better."

"My dear Agnes, we might talk for ever about this dreadful snow, it
won't melt the sooner for it: how do you like this passage that I am
going to play to you? It is from a charming Nocturne, by Chopin, and is
so difficult that I shall have to play it over fifty times, or else I
shall always stumble at this place, and I never shall know the Nocturne
to play to any one. Don't you think it is beautiful?--so spiritual and
original! I can tell you it will be something to boast of, when I have
accomplished that. You like it better the oftener I play it? So do I."

"We have an invitation out. Mother has a great deal to arrange, and
directions to give. We shall have to go in ten minutes. I must rush to
the piano, though I am in rather an inconvenient toilette: I may as well
accustom myself to play in it. I shall have to spend three hours this
evening without any music. Well, to make up for it, I will occupy myself
for the next ten minutes with an exercise for this obstinate fourth
finger, though it is pretty dry. That weak finger has been a hindrance
to many a fine passage and scale. That is better! Now I can put on my
tight gloves. Suppose I should put on the left glove on the way."

Well, my young ladies, how many hours do you think all those minutes
would make in a year? But I hear you say, "What is the use of worrying
to pick up all those stray minutes, like lost pins? We have a whole hour
to practise every day, when nothing prevents." Exactly, when nothing
prevents.

I will now tell you a few of my secrets for piano performers.

If in piano-playing, or in any art, you wish to attain success, you must
resolve to work every day, at least a little, on the technique. Sickness
and other unavoidable interruptions deprive you of days enough.

Practise always with unexhausted energy: the result will be tenfold. Do
you not frequently use the time for practising, when you have already
been at work studying for five or six hours? Have you then strength and
spirit enough to practise the necessary exercises for an hour or more,
and to study your music-pieces carefully and attentively, as your
teacher instructed you? Is not your mind exhausted, and are not your
hands and fingers tired and stiff with writing, so that you are tempted
to help out with your arms and elbows, which is worse tha