693. Marie Antoinette, and her Mother the Empress were among those lesser mortals, whose teachers, purple in the face, and groaning in exasperation hammered the edge of the piano in tempo to the music screaming out one, two, three, four, while pounding the piano so hard with a baton that it looked like a cat had been exercising its claws on its surface.
694. This was why the Empress hated the music of Bach, and it is the self same reason she wanted little Marie to master his works, so that the child would succeed where she had failed. Her little girl was going to be perfect, a royal angel, a little Goddess, primed and perfected and polished to be sent off to rule the French with an enlightened mind and heart. But little Marie was just an ordinary child with no special skills, destined for tragedy, and this Bach fugue was just the beginning.
695. What was the poor music tutor to do. He could not bear the thought that his failure would lead to his being fired, and worse yet, that Marie would be severely punished. He thought about his own teacher of years ago, whose theories he had adopted as his own. His old teacher had this to say:
696. A child never makes a mistake, and should never be punished for anything. Every punishment of a child serves only one purpose, some perverse emotional gratification on the part of the punisher!
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