scene a youth named Robert Schumann.
Born in 1810, of a family that was literary rather than musical, he had
obtained some knowledge of the art with his father's consent. After the
death of the latter, his mother would not hear of his choosing a
musical career, but insisted on his studying law. This he did at
Heidelberg, in a rather original manner,--taking long walks, reading
Jean Paul's works, and practising piano nearly all day. In the summer he
met Wieck, whom he adopted as a teacher, and in this way he came to know
the learned pedagogue's talented daughter.

Her musical education was now beginning to bear fruit. In the concert
tours that she began soon after her first triumph, she never allowed
herself to be carried away by the fondness of the public for mere
display, but always aimed at something higher. Instead of making a show
of her technical attainments, she consecrated her powers to the cause of
true art. It required great courage to uphold her standard, for she came
upon the scene at a time when only phenomenal playing, bristling with
seemingly unconquerable difficulties, won the public homage and the
public wealth. Herein both she and her future husband showed themselves
actuated by the very highest motives.

Unfortunately for the romantic side of the story, theirs was not a case
of love at first sight. No less than five years after their first
meeting, we find Schumann deeply interested in a certain Ernestine von
Fricken, another pupil of Wieck. It is stated that the beautiful
numbers of the "Carneval" were due largely, if not wholly, to her
inspiration, which at that time reached its highest point.[4] The
letters A, S, C, and H (the German way of notating B) represent the
Bohemian town of Asch, where she was born, and are also the only musical
letters in Schumann's own name. He himself noted this coincidence in a
letter to Moscheles, and built the themes of the various numbers almost
wholly upon them.

However this may be, he certainly had a great admiration for Clara even
in her early years. He took piano lessons of her father, and became for
a time an inmate of their house. He owed much to the teaching, but still
more to the stimulating artistic society of the Wieck family.

In 1829 he left his teacher, and made a final effort to prepare for the
legal career that his mother had planned for him. It was of little
avail, however, for in the next year we find him writing home that his
entire life had b