I assure you your mother or your aunt, if you surprise them instead with a fine piano performance, will be as much pleased as if you strained your eyes and bent your back for days and nights over the needle-work.

And now as regards painting: painting and music, though theoretically so nearly related, agree but poorly in practice; at least, if you are in earnest about either.

You say painters often play on the guitar and the flute.

That may be true: I will allow them those two instruments.

But piano-playing stands on a different footing, even for mere amateurs.