The Light of Dreams
“
How do you get on with the Master?” asked Iris.
“After a fashion,” answered Irving; “but I do not get on with Fräulein Fredrika at all. She despises me.”
“She does not like many people.”
“So it would seem. I have been unfortunate from the first, though I was careful to admire ‘mine crazy jug.’”
“It is the apple of her eye,” laughed Iris, “it means to her just what his Cremona means to him.”
“It is a wonderful creation, and I told her so, but where in the dickens did she get the idea?”
“Don’t ask me. Did you happen to notice anything else?”
“No—only the violin. Sometimes I take my lesson in the parlour, sometimes in the shop downstairs, or even in Herr Kaufmann’s bedroom, which opens off of it. When I come, he stops whatever he happens to be doing, sits down, and proceeds with my education.”