f Pauline Garcia for the piano was so remarkable that it was
for some time the purpose of her father to devote her to this musical
specialty. She was barely more than seven on the return of the Garcias
to Europe, and she was placed, without delay, under the care of a
celebrated teacher, Meysenberg of Paris. Three years later she was
transferred to the instruction of Franz Liszt, of whom she became one of
the most distinguished pupils. Liszt believed that his young scholar had
the ability to become one of the greatest pianists of the age, and was
urgent that she should devote herself to this branch of the musical
art. Her health, however, was not equal to the unremitting sedentary
confinement of piano practice, though she attained a degree of skill
which enabled her to play with much success as a solo performer at the
concerts of her sister Maria. Her voice had also developed remarkable
quality during the time when she was devoting her energies in another
direction, and her proud father was wont to say, whenever a buzz of
ecstatic pleasure over the singing of Mme. Malibran met his ear, "There
is a younger sister who is a greater genius than she." It is more than
probable that Pauline Garcia, as a singer, owed an inestimable debt
to Pauline Garcia as a player, and that her accuracy and brilliancy of
musical method were, in large measure, the outcome of her training under
the king of modern pianists.

Manuel Garcia died when Pauline was but eleven years old, and the
question of her daughter's further musical education was left to Mme.
Garcia. The celebrated tenor singer, Adolphe Nourrit, one of the famous
lights of the French stage, who had been a favorite pupil of Garcia,
showed great kindness to the widow and her daughter. Anxious to promote
the interests of the young girl, he proposed that she should take
lessons from Eossini, and that great _maestro_ consented. Nourrit's
delight at this piece of good luck, however, was quickly checked. Mme.
Garcia firmly declined, and said that if her son Manuel could not
come to her from Rome for the purpose of training Pauline's voice,
she herself was equal to the task, knowing the principles on which
the Garcia school of the voice was founded. The systems of Rossini and
Garcia were radically different, the one stopping at florid grace of
vocalization, while the other aimed at a radical and profound culture of
all the resources of the voice.

It may be said, however, that Pauline Ga