s rooms, where I waited for
about a quarter of an hour until he came. At last Wagner appeared
in company with Cosima and Goldmark. I bowed to Cosima very
respectfully, but she evidently did not think it worth while to
honour me with a single glance. Wagner was going into his room
without paying any attention to me, when the maid said to him in a
beseeching voice: 'Ah, Herr Wagner, it is a young musician who
wishes to speak to you; he has been waiting for you a long time.'

"He then came out of his room, looked at me, and said: 'I have seen
you before, I think. You are....'

"Probably he wanted to say, 'You are a fool.'

"He went in front of me and opened the door of the reception-room,
which was furnished in a truly royal style. In the middle of the
room was a couch covered in velvet and silk. Wagner himself was
wrapped in a long velvet mantle bordered with fur.

"When I was inside the room he asked me what I wanted."

Here Hugo Wolf, to excite the curiosity of his parents, broke off his
story and put "To be continued in my next." In his next letter he
continues:

"I said to him: 'Highly honoured master, for a long time I have
wanted to hear an opinion on my compositions, and it would be....'

"Here the master interrupted me and said: 'My dear child, I cannot
give you an opinion of your compositions; I have far too little
time; I can't even get my own letters written. I understand nothing
at all about music _(Ich verstehe gar nichts von der Musik_).'

"I asked the master whether I should ever be able really to do
anything, and he said to me: 'When I was your age and composing
music, no one could tell me then whether I should ever do anything
great. You could at most play me your compositions on the piano;
but I have no time to hear them. When you are older, and when you
have composed bigger works, and if by chance I return to Vienna,
you shall show me what you have done. But that is no use now; I
cannot give you an opinion of them yet.'

"When I told the master that I took the classics as models, he
said: 'Good, good. One can't be original at first.' And he laughed,
and then said, 'I wish you, dear friend, much happiness in your
career. Go on working steadily, and if I come back to Vienna, show
me your compositions.'

"Upon that I left t