Its people are tired and blase; like highly trained circus-horses, they want to trot or gallop always in the old grooves.

It will always be so.

Sarasate is like a brilliant meteor streaming across their narrow bit of the heaven of music; they stare, gape, and think it is an unnatural phenomenon--a 'virtuosity' in the way of meteors, which they are afraid to accept lest it set them on fire.

What would you?
The meteor shines and burns; it is always a meteor!" So, talking lightly, and gliding from subject to subject, the hours wore away, and we at last separated for the night.
I shall always be glad to remember how tenderly Zara kissed me and wished me good repose; and I recall now, with mingled pain, wonder, and gratitude, how perfectly calm and contented I felt as, after my prayers, I sank to sleep, unwarned, and therefore happily unconscious, of what awaited me on the morrow..