est that you go? Suppose my peace of mind or something else of
importance to the world, consolation, liberation, or improvement,
depends on your going? Suppose I request that you go for one of these
reasons? What then?"

Gertrude had become as pale as death. She looked at him for a moment,
then turned her face to one side, drew up her shoulders as if she were
shivering with cold, and said: "Well--then--then--I'll go. But I will be
sorry for it ... sorry for it."

Eleanore was a witness to this scene. Her eyes, wide open when it began,
grew larger and larger as it advanced through its successive stages. As
she looked at Daniel a kindly, languishing moisture came to them, and
she smiled.

Daniel, however, had become vexed. He mumbled a good-bye and left.
Eleanore went to the window and watched him as he ran across the
square, holding his hat with both hands as a shield against the driving
wind.

"He is an amusing fellow," she said, "an amusing fellow."

She then lifted her eyes to the clouds, whose swift flight above the
church roof pleased her.

X

It was the original intention to begin the regular evening concert with
the third "Fidelio Overture." Doederlein was of the opinion that it
offered no special difficulties: the general rehearsal was to be devoted
primarily to the works of the novice. He raised his baton, and silence
filled the auditorium.

The "Nuremberg Serenade" opened with ensemble playing of the wind
instruments. It was a jovial, virile theme which the violins took up
after the wind instruments, plucked it to pieces in their capricious
way, and gradually led it over into the realm of dreams. The night
became living: a gentle summer wind blew, glow worms flitted about,
Gothic towers stood out in the sultry darkness, plebeian figures crept
into the narrow, angular alleys; it was night in Nuremberg. The
acclamation a glorious past with an admonition to the future fell upon
the smug complacency of the present, the heroic mingled with the jocose,
the fantastic with the burlesque, romanticism found its counterpart, and
all this was achieved through a flood of genuine melody in which
stodginess played no part, while charm was abundant in every turn and
tune.

The professional musicians were astonished; and their astonishment was
vigorously expressed in their criticisms. The general admiration, to be
sure, was somewhat deafened by the unpleasant end that the rehears