sible the boy
had any gift for music; the following evening he died. The next
morning Richard was told by his mother that his father would fain have
made something of him; and, like young Teufelsdroeckh, Wagner for long
fancied something would be made of him.

IV

So, less than eight years after, Ludwig Geyer followed his friend Carl
Friedrich Wagner to the grave, like him to a premature grave. He left
only one child of his own, Augusta Caecilie (born February 26, 1815);
but he made Friedrich's widow his wife and her children were as his
children; and he toiled hard for their comfort and planned unceasingly
for their welfare; and when on an October morning he was left in his
last peaceful home to rest, it must have seemed to his widow as though
happiness was to be denied her until she joined him. The winter of
1813 had been black enough, but at once she had Geyer; in 1821 there
was no second Geyer. Adolph Wagner may have seen in the tragedy a
marked instance of the folly of having anything to do with the stage
or actors. Possibly he did not realize that precisely through Geyer's
connection with the theatre, and only to a comparatively small extent
by means of his reputation as an artist, his sister-in-law and nephews
and nieces suffered less than might have been anticipated. For on the
morning following Geyer's death Rosalie swore to take his place as
provider for the family, and that promise she kept.

When Richard was six months old, fate, as we have seen, struck her
first blow, placed the first obstacle in the path of a successful
infantile career, and swiftly sent Geyer to his aid. Now, when he was
just turned eight, she snatched away Geyer, and had already Rosalie in
readiness to help him. And, in fact, throughout Wagner's life fate
seemed never to tire of delivering staggering blows with one hand, and
with the other hand, at the same moment or a moment later, giving him
compensation, often ample, sometimes on a scale of lordly generosity.
From the beginning to the end of his seventy years no man ever had
worse or better luck than Wagner. It is perfectly clear that fate
meant him to write the _Mastersingers_ and _Tristan_, and at times she
was cruel to him only to be kind to humanity. It is true she seems to
have made a mistake when she allowed him to complete _Parsifal_--but
that matter lies as yet many chapters ahead.

It would appear that Frau Geyer had a pension of some sort; since May
1 Rosalie had been