e another, yet detached. A few unsatisfactory attempts were
made by the Composer to place the bars. These were mostly put in by the
editor--sometimes by the direction or with the acquiescence of the
Composer--and, when they were drawn in advance of the writing, their
presence was always properly observed.

As the revision became more close and careful, the Composer directed
that the work be continued down-stairs beside the piano. Here every bar
of the treble was played separately as soon as edited, to be pronounced
satisfactory by the Composer, or to be modified under his direction. The
treble, on its completion--eight measures--was then played over in its
entirety and pronounced by the Composer to be correct. (He made one or
two further emendations, however, on the following day.) The eight bars
of the bass were gone over in the same fashion. The attempt to play the
entire composition, treble and bass, was not satisfactory, partly owing
to mechanical difficulties occasioned by the distribution of the matter
on the slate and the multiplicity of corrections, and partly from lack
of skill in the performer. However, two or three very brief passages
were given by both hands and pronounced correct by the Composer, who
showed surprise that anything so "_simple_"--as he characterized
it--should give so much trouble. In one instance he noted that, while
the two parts, treble and bass, were correct separately, they were not
played in correct time together. The Composer, throughout, was most
patient, persevering, courteous, and encouraging, though toward the
end--in the closing measures of the bass--he showed some confusion and
uncertainty. "_Wait a moment_," he would say; and once the whisper
asked that, as an aid to sight, the editor's hand be spread over that
leaf of the slate on which work was in progress. The Composer had
thought, earlier--and so said--that a trained musician could easily
supply the bass from the melody. His amanuensis was obliged to
acknowledge frankly an inability to cope successfully with so
complicated and unusual a matter. The psychic herself, though expressing
a fondness for the opera, disclaimed any knowledge of musical notation,
and added that never before had she performed such a function as at
present.

As the work of correction progressed, the Composer several times asked
for opportunity to make the changes himself; whereupon the pencil-tip
would be enclosed in the slate and satisfactory emendati