f
labour, but others reap the credit. Recently the Bishop of Arras even
asked you to write in German what he dictated in French, although you are
in the regent's service, and just at that time you were transposing the
old church songs for the boy choir. I regret to see you do such
tradesmen's work without adequate reward. Why, even if her Majesty would
give you a fat living or appoint you to the imperial council which
directs musical affairs in the Netherlands! Pardon me, Sir Wolf! But give
people an inch, and they take an ell, and your ever ready obligingness
will injure you, for the harder it is to win a thing the higher its value
becomes. You made yourself too cheap at court here people will surely
know how to put a higher value upon a man who is equally skilful in
Netherland, Italian, and German music. In counterpoint you are little
inferior to Maestro Gombert, and, besides, you play as many instruments
as you have fingers on your hands. We all like to have you lead us,
because you do it with such delicate taste and comprehension, and,
moreover, with a vigour which one would scarcely expect from you. You
will not lack patrons. Look around you here or elsewhere for a position
as leader of an orchestra. Goinbert, to relieve himself a little, would
like to have de Hondt come from Antwerp to Brussels. His place would be
the very one for you if you find nothing worthy of you here, where you
have a house of your own and other things that bind you to the city."

"Here I should probably be obliged to crowd somebody else out of one in
order to obtain a position," replied Wolf, "and I am unwilling to do so."

"You are wrong," cried the violinist. "The course of the world causes the
stronger--and that you are--to take precedence of the weaker. Learn at
last to give up this modest withdrawal and elbow your way forward!"

"Pressing and jostling are not in my nature;" replied Wolf with a slight
shrug of the shoulders. "Since I may hope to be relieved of anxiety
concerning my daily bread, I am disposed to leave the court and seek
quiet happiness in a more definite circle of duties at home. You see,
Massi, it is just the same with us human beings as with material things.
There is my man cutting the rope from yonder package with his sharp
knife. The contents are distributed in a trice, and yet it was tiresome
to collect them and pack them carefully. Thus it would need only a word
to separate myself from the court; but to join it ag