h one mood or aspect gives place to
another. Just before he was called upon to play, the boy's eyes had
been sparkling with merriment, and his spirits had so infected the rest
of the company as to cause the intervals separating the performances to
be filled with laughter and merry chatter. Yet no one watching his face
now, as his fingers swept over the keys, could have failed to be struck
by the change in its expression. Every trace of fun had vanished, and
to the sparkle of the eyes had succeeded an expression of deep
earnestness that showed how readily the mind had adapted itself to the
character of the music he was playing, and as the performance
progressed one could have read in his face every shade of feeling which
the music was intended to express. No self-consciousness marred the
spontaneity of the player's interpretation. Everything seemed to come
direct from his soul, as if that soul had found the voice by which
alone it could be heard and understood, and revelled in its freedom.
And as he played on, weaving fresh melodies out of the original theme,
ever and anon breaking through the web of harmony to recall the simple,
plaintive air with which he had begun--his face at one moment lighted
up with radiant happiness and at the next shaded with quiet
sadness--his listeners almost held their breath, fearful of losing
any portion of the music which was passing away from them, perhaps for
ever. And as he played, the shadows of the December afternoon crept
into the room, enveloping the slight figure seated at the instrument,
until his outline became lost to view, and the melody pouring forth
from beneath his fingers seemed to come from heaven itself.

[Illustration: MENDELSSOHN.
From photo RISCHGITZ.]

* * * * *

To those who visited the home of Abraham Mendelssohn, the wealthy
Berlin banker, the fact that his son Felix had a remarkable genius for
music did not admit of a doubt. The capacity for learning music had
begun very early, but his wonderful gift of extemporisation, which
gave his genius wings as well as voice, had only lately revealed
itself at the time at which our story opens. Nevertheless, it had made
great strides, and opened up all sorts of possibilities with regard to
the future. And withal there was such an unaffected modesty and
simplicity about the boy, so complete an absence of anything like a
desire to show off his talents, as sufficed to disarm any tendenc