And he feared for her on
another score. She was, to use a constantly recurring phrase of the
Master's, whenever he wished to describe anyone as being wealthy, "lousy
with money," and he suspected, not without good cause, that I would warn
her against paying exorbitant prices for books and objects of art....
* * * * *
One night I was the cause of an accident which gave him a handle to
seize on.
We were having a musicale. A new musician had come to Eos. The former
Eos musician, Von Hammer, the father of the prodigy who played the
piano, had quarrelled with the Master and had retired to Buffalo. Where,
after a brief struggle as teacher of music, he had turned to playing for
the movies. It must have nearly slain the man, for he was a sincere
artist, a lover of classical music ... and now compelled to play ragtime
and popular melodies for a living.
All that I held of him, despite myself, was an unkind remembrance--his
breath had been charnel-foul, and always, when discussing anything, he
insisted on taking the lapel of his listener's coat and talking directly
into his nose....
* * * * *
But his successor was playing at an introductory musicale....
A tall, alert, dark young man ... Italian-dark ... his eyes shone behind
his gold-rimmed glasses, swimming large and distorted under the
magnification of the lenses .
Pages:
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343