At every " practice " a fresh score was rendered, somehow or other — for the most part, with astounding verve and intelligence — and the pupils always appeared eager to tackle anything and everything, no matter how cranky or complicated, that their well-loved master might please to chasten them with. On one or two occasions, when I happened to be present at the " Uebungen," Hellmesberger's greedy alumni even "asked for more," like Oliver Twist, after undergoing what I considered a surfeit of sight-reading.