CHAPTER XI.
SECRETS.
_( A Discourse on Piano-Playing, delivered to an Audience of Lady Pupils.)_ Ladies,--As I am about to make a journey of a few weeks with my daughters, we will suspend for a short time our musical meetings.

On my return, you will resume them with fresh interest.

We will then not only play and sing together, but occasionally talk upon kindred subjects.
Your friends will be made welcome, provided they are really interested in simple and noble musical performances, which make no attempt at display.

We will exclude from our circle malicious criticism and idle curiosity: we require the accompaniment of the violin and 'cello, but not of those two disturbing elements.
To-day I wish to propound a query in regard to piano-playing, to the partial solution of which you will perhaps be glad to give some attention.

You may be sure that I shall always speak only upon subjects which are not even mentioned in the most crowded piano-schools.
_Query._ Why is it that our young, educated ladies, who enjoy the advantages of sufficient talent, industry, a serious purpose, and all the necessary aids, are usually dissatisfied with their progress and with their success in piano-playing?
Their education is a sufficiently careful one, extending to all branches of knowledge; but their intellectual advancement in music (although it has been fostered for years, by constantly listening to good music, and frequently to the performances of distinguished players, and by a critical comparison of their own performances with these) is still small in proportion to their power of execution, and to the mechanical facility which they have acquired.