nd their difference
in position prevented much intercourse between the two, but his devotion
was apparently as lasting as it was unselfish. According to Kreissle, it
found expression once, on her asking him, in jesting reproach, why he
never dedicated anything to her. "Why should I," came the reply;
"everything I ever did is dedicated to you." One of his posthumous works
bears her name, which would hardly have been printed unless found on the
manuscript in the handwriting of this greatest of tone-poets.

Mendelssohn came of a family that boasted an eminent intellectual leader
of Judaism in the shape of Moses Mendelssohn, the composer's
grandfather. Abraham, the father, brought up his two children, Fanny and
Felix, in the Lutheran faith. Between the brother and sister there
existed the most intimate understanding and affection, lasting through
their entire lives. Both were musically gifted, possessing delicate
hands and taper fingers that were often spoken of as if made expressly
for playing Bach fugues.

Growing to maturity in the delightful family atmosphere that
characterizes the better class of Jews and their descendants, Fanny
Mendelssohn met and loved the young painter, Wilhelm Hensel. Her mother
would not hear of an immediate engagement, but, after five years of art
study in Rome, Hensel returned to become Fanny's betrothed. Felix, now
launched on his professional career, produced an organ piece especially
for the wedding. Another work for family use was his cantata, or opera,
"Son and Stranger," composed for the silver wedding of his parents. This
was prepared without their knowledge, and in order that the non-musical
Hensel might take part with the rest of the family, Mendelssohn wrote
for him a number consisting wholly of one note repeated. Even with this
aid the Muses were unpropitious in the performance, and Hensel could not
hit the right pitch for this note, while all his neighbours tried to
prompt him, and the young composer sat at the piano convulsed with
laughter.

Fanny Hensel led a life of happy activity. She and her brother drew
around them a circle of celebrities that included scientific as well as
artistic leaders. Like her brother, she was a composer. At first,
however, he objected to her publishing her works, on account of her sex,
and half a dozen of her songs without words were brought out among his
own. In 1846 she ventured at last to issue some piano melodies and vocal
works, in compliance w