“Gretel Schiller,” repeated Miss Heath. “Why, can it be possible that your father was Hermann Schiller?” And she glanced at the sheet of music before her on the piano.
“Yes, he was,” said Gretel, proudly. “Oh, would you mind finishing the sonata? I want to hear it so very much.”
“Of course I will,” said Miss Heath, kindly. “I am very fond of it myself, but I am afraid I may not do it justice; it is rather difficult, and I haven’t had much time for practicing lately.”
“Oh, yes, you will,” protested Gretel. “You were playing it just the way Father did. I haven’t heard any one play the piano like that since he died. May I stay here for a little while, Geraldine? I want so much to hear the lady play?”
“You can stay if you want to,” answered Geraldine, who was beginning to look rather disgusted at this sudden turn of affairs, “but she’s Miss Heath, our teacher, and we don’t have to stay with her except at lessons. Jerry and I are going up-stairs, and you can come when you get ready.” And Geraldine departed, followed by her brother.
Then followed an hour of such bliss as Gretel had not known since her father’s death more than a year before. Miss Heath was really an accomplished musician, and what was more, she loved music just as much as Gretel did. It was a real delight to play to any one who seemed to enjoy it as did this odd little brown-eyed girl, who nestled close to her side, and seemed to drink in every note with actual rapture. She finished the sonata, and after playing several other beautiful things, she asked the child kind, interested questions, all of which Gretel answered readily. Miss Heath knew all about Hermann Schiller, and had even heard him play several times, and she caused Gretel’s proud little heart to swell by her praises of her father’s talent. Indeed, Gretel was completely fascinated by the pretty young lady, and it seemed to her quite inconceivable that Jerry and Geraldine could regard Miss Heath as a rather tiresome addition to the party, whose society was to be dispensed with on every possible occasion.
At last Miss Heath suggested that it might be well for Gretel to rejoin her friends.
“I can’t join them myself,” she added, laughing, “because I am under contract to appear only at lesson hours. They are a funny little pair, but I am sure you will like them.”
Gretel would have preferred remaining where she was, but feared it might not be polite to leave the twins for too long, so she rose reluctantly.
“Thank you so much for playing,” she said in her sweet, courteous little voice; “I didn’t know I should ever hear any one play the piano like that again.”