To himself he was reiterating "Genius! Genius!" but he seldom praised without regretting the fact and immediately serving the antidote to his overconfident pupil. He was quite sure flattery was poison.
To herself, Venna's fourteen wise years were as constant testimony that she knew all things, lived all things, and would finally conquer all things.
One of her relatives who criticized her self-confidence, wrote in her album,
"When ambitious youth, secure and proud,
Ascends the ladder, leaning on a cloud!
O then, Venna, beware!"
Venna immediately wrote under it,
"Better to ascend and have a fall
Than to sit down and never climb at all.
If I fall, I'll climb still higher.
But wait until the cloud is drier!"
There was no doubt about Venna's brilliancy—the family and all her friends agreed upon that. But her self-confidence—it was almost appalling. She was so bewitchingly lovable that no one called it conceit, but—well, we will not analyze her character too closely at this early period. She was a bundle of possibilities, presumably exceptional.
Venna took the Professor's rebuke with pretended sobriety.
"Of course, I'll try to do better. You know I hate monotony and dislike practicing the same thing over and over again. I'd much rather play just what I feel like." Then suddenly beaming with assurance, she smilingly declared, "I'm sure I'd do wonders if you would let me show you how I wish to be taught. Just let me take up theme after theme, just as I wish to, and develop naturally. I should follow nature! 'Consider the lily, how it grows'"—
"Enough, young lady!" interrupted her Professor with dutiful sternness. "You'll do as I wish, if I'm to teach you. Of course, you are too young (here Venna's curls gave a pronounced shake) to appreciate anything scientific yet, but nevertheless you must accept what I tell you. Music is science as well as poetry, and the science of it, I am here to teach."