n, Marianne, nicknamed by him Baesle, a merry,
open-hearted girl of nineteen.

Thence, he went on to Mannheim, a town that is memorable as the place
where he first met the Webers, and made the acquaintance of Herr
Cannabich, the director of the music at the elector's court, and one
who proved a stanch friend through everything to the young composer.
Cannabich had a daughter named Rosa, a girl of thirteen, exceedingly
pretty and clever, and Wolfgang appears to have admired her very much,
and perhaps for a time to have flirted and been in love with her. He
wrote her a sonata, and was delighted with the way in which she played
it; the andante, he said, he had composed to represent her, and when
it was finished he vowed she was just what the andante was. But this
little love affair, if it existed, soon was forgotten in a more
serious one with Aloysia Weber. Her father was a theatre copyist in
poor circumstances. There were a number of children, and she was a
beautiful girl of fifteen, with a magnificent voice. She was cousin,
by the way, to Weber, afterward composer of the "Freischuetz." Mozart
was so charmed with her voice that he undertook to give her lessons,
and we soon hear of him composing airs for her and meditating a
concert tour in Italy in company with her, and her father and sister.
In writing of it to his own father he sets out the advantages to be
gained by co-partnership, and very prosaically says: "Should we stay
long anywhere, the eldest daughter [Josepha, afterward Frau Hofer, for
whom Mozart wrote the part of Astrafiammente in the "Zauberfloete"]
would be of the greatest use to us; for we could have our own menage,
as she understands cooking." But papa Mozart decidedly objected. "Your
proposal to travel about with Herr Weber--N. B., two daughters--has
driven me nearly wild," and he straightway orders his son off to
Paris, whither, with a parting present of a pair of mittens knitted
for him by Mlle. Weber, he reluctantly sets out in company with his
mother.

His stay in Paris during the next year was not very eventful, and a
symphony produced at the Concerts Spirituels seems to have been his
most successful work at this time. It was clever and lively, full of
striking effects, and was most warmly applauded. He says: "The moment
the symphony was over I went off in my joy to the Palais Royal, where
I took a good ice, told my beads, as I had vowed, and went home, where
I am happiest and always shall be happi