difficulties one by one, his love
and his genius preventing him from feeling the hardest work a
drudgery.

For some time this secret practising continued without arousing
suspicion on the part of the other inmates of the house. One night,
however, when the child had resorted to his favourite spot, he was
suddenly missed by those below, and, as it was known that he had been
sent to bed, some fears were felt as to what could have become of him.
The servants were summoned, but could give no account of him; the
father was fetched from his study, whither he had retired, and a
search began. The alarm increased when it was ascertained that the
child was in none of the living-rooms of the house, and it was decided
that the garrets and lofts must be searched. Calling for a lantern,
the surgeon ascended the stairs leading to the lumber-room; it was
possible that the boy might have found his way thither on some
childish expedition, and there fallen asleep. Great was the father's
surprise, on reaching the top-most landing, to hear faint musical
sounds proceeding from behind the closed door. Noiselessly retracing
his steps, he summoned the rest of the household, and then, ascending
the stairs in a body, they paused outside to listen. Sure enough the
old garret was full of melodic sounds! Now near, now far off, they
seemed to the listeners to be wafted from another world; there was
something uncanny about it, and the maids gazed into each other's
faces with a scared expression, as the master softly lifted the latch,
and, having peeped into the room, beckoned silently to the rest to
follow him.

It might have been one of the angel choir itself whom these good
people of the under-world had stumbled upon unawares! 'Meister Goerge,'
lifting his lantern above his head, peered forward into the darkness,
whilst the women clasped their hands in astonishment at the vision
presented to their gaze. For there, seated before the spinet, was the
white-robed figure of the child, his face half turned towards them,
and his eyes, as they caught the light of the lantern, revealing the
dreamy, rapt expression of one who is lost to every earthly
surrounding.

[Illustration: '_Beckoned silently to the rest to follow him._']

This discovery does not seem to have produced any outburst of anger
on the part of the father. Possibly he was touched by the child's
devotion, or by his entreaties, and felt unwilling to deprive him of
what, after all, he