Apart from her fondness for the unreal scenes presented by the
miscellaneous books she read--scenes all the more unreal because she
had no experience by which to correct them--she had one other taste
which promised well for the future--a sincere love of music. She was
taking lessons, but it was from a superficial teacher, who was content
to give her pretty and showy pieces; and she brought even to this
favorite study the desultory habits which characterized all her
efforts to obtain an education. When she sat down to her piano,
however, nature was her strong ally. Her ear was fine and correct, and
her sensitive, fanciful spirit gave delicacy and originality to her
touch. It scarcely seems possible for one to become a sympathetic
musician without a large degree of imagination and a nature easily
moved by thought and feeling. The young girl's thoughts and feelings
were as yet very vague, not concentrated on definite objects, and yet
so good a connoisseur as Graydon often acknowledged her power, and
would listen with pleased attention to her girlish rendering of music
made familiar to him by the great performers of the day. He enjoyed it
all the more because it was her own interpretation, often incorrect,
but never commonplace or slovenly; and when her fingers wandered among
the keys in obedience to her own impulses he was even more charmed,
although the melody was usually without much meaning.
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