And as Villiers with a wry smile approached nearer to him, he broke into a run, crying out, "Do not bite me!" Then, as if to escape from the danger, he climbed with extraordinary agility to the very top of a pine-tree.
XVII
The Master asked me if I knew the Military March he had dedicated to the King of Bavaria. He had on his piano a copy of this piece, arranged for four hands.
"Let us play it," said he. "But I warn you that I play the piano very badly."
What of my playing, then! But I felt that I must not disclose my weakness, that, at any cost, this wonderful, rare moment must be enshrined in my memory:—to have played a duet with Richard Wagner, if it were only a few bars!
He took the upper part, and as the bass is more difficult for me, that made the matter worse. But I seated myself courageously, mentally determined to make every effort of which I was capable.
We began to play, without stumbling. I felt as though I were a somnambulist walking on a narrow ledge, and I seemed to have been doing so for a very long time.
But at last, on the third page, Wagner himself hesitated and then stopped, declaring that part too difficult.
"How well you keep the time!" he exclaimed. And then he complimented me upon my way of rolling the tremolos. That particular merit was most assuredly brought to light by the emotion of the moment, as I had never known of it before.