trument, and had
offered for it a sum equivalent to about four hundred dollars; but the
artist would not sell it even if one thousand had been offered for it,
although he was, at this juncture, in great need of funds to pay off a
debt of honor, and sorely tempted to accept the proffered amount. Just
at this point Paganini received an invitation to a friend's house where
gambling was the order of the day. "All my capital," he says, "consisted
of thirty francs, as I had disposed of my jewels, watch, rings, etc.;
I nevertheless resolved on risking this last resource, and, if fortune
proved fickle, to sell my violin and proceed to St. Petersburg, without
instrument or baggage, with the view of reestablishing my affairs. My
thirty francs were soon reduced to three, and I already fancied myself
on the road to Russia, when luck took a sudden turn, and I won one
hundred and sixty francs. This saved my violin and completely set me up.
From that day forward I gradually gave up gaming, becoming more and more
convinced that a gambler is an object of contempt to all well-regulated
minds."

III.

Love-making was also among the diversions which Paganini began early
to practice. Like nearly all great musicians, he was an object of great
fascination to the fair sex, and his life had its full share of amorous
romances. A strange episode was his retirement in the country chateau of
a beautiful Bolognese lady for three years, between the years 1801
and 1804. Here, in the society of a lovely woman, who was passionately
devoted to him, and amid beautiful scenery, he devoted himself to
practicing and composition, also giving much study to the guitar (the
favorite instrument of his inamorata), on which he became a wonderful
proficient. This charming idyl in Paganini's life reminds one of the
retirement of the pianist Chopin to the island of Majorca in the company
of Mme. George Sand. It was during this period of his life that Paganini
composed twelve of his finest sonatas for violin and guitar.

When our musician returned again to Genoa and active life in 1804, he
devoted much time also to composition. He was twenty years of age,
and wrote here four grand quartets for violin, tenor, violoncello,
and guitar, and also some bravura variations for violin with guitar
accompaniment. At this period he gave lessons to a young girl of Genoa,
Catherine Calcagno, about seven years of age; eight years later, when
only fifteen years old, this young la