g girl, delighted to have something to do to keep her
in countenance, went to the piano and began to move the green-covered
music-books, the heirs resigned themselves, with many demonstrations of
pleasure, to the torture and the silence about to be inflicted on them,
so eager were they to find out what was going on between their uncle and
the Portendueres.

In sometimes happens that a piece of music, poor in itself, when
played by a young girl under the influence of deep feeling, makes more
impression than a fine overture played by a full orchestra. In all
music there is, besides the thought of the composer, the soul of the
performer, who, by a privilege granted to this art only, can give both
meaning and poetry to passages which are in themselves of no great
value. Chopin proves, for that unresponsive instrument the piano, the
truth of this fact, already proved by Paganini on the violin. That
fine genius is less a musician than a soul which makes itself felt, and
communicates itself through all species of music, even simple chords.
Ursula, by her exquisite and sensitive organization, belonged to this
rare class of beings, and old Schmucke, the master, who came every
Saturday and who, during Ursula's stay in Paris was with her every
day, had brought his pupil's talent to its full perfection. "Rousseau's
Dream," the piece now chosen by Ursula, composed by Herold in his young
days, is not without a certain depth which is capable of being developed
by execution. Ursula threw into it the feelings which were agitating her
being, and justified the term "caprice" given by Herold to the fragment.
With soft and dreamy touch her soul spoke to the young man's soul and
wrapped it, as in a cloud, with ideas that were almost visible.

Sitting at the end of the piano, his elbow resting on the cover and his
head on his left hand, Savinien admired Ursula, whose eyes, fixed on the
paneling of the wall beyond him, seemed to be questioning another world.
Many a man would have fallen deeply in love for a less reason. Genuine
feelings have a magnetism of their own, and Ursula was willing to show
her soul, as a coquette her dresses to be admired. Savinien entered
that delightful kingdom, led by this pure heart, which, to interpret its
feelings, borrowed the power of the only art that speaks to thought by
thought, without the help of words, or color, or form. Candor, openness
of heart have the same power over a man that childhood has; the same