uninterrupted intercourse"
became a reality, and there was scarcely a day when the Mendelssohns and
Moscheles did not meet. They could not do without me, however (remember
I was an only son, and a well-beloved godson), so I was recalled and
soon left Carlsruhe, I am afraid, with a wicked sense of ingratitude for
all the care bestowed on me by Professor Schummelig and my other
teachers.

It was terribly cold that winter, and travelling was fraught with
difficulties, if not with dangers. Our diligence was a heavy one, and
when it got stuck fast in the drifting snow, as it did more than once,
the passengers had to get out, whether it was by day or by night, and
literally put their shoulders to the wheel. It was only thanks to a very
kind and provident "conducteur," that my much-tried little spark of
vitality was preserved. He kept a never-to-be-forgotten straw-plaited
brandy flask suspended from his neck by a green cord, and when my
spirits flagged, his did good office.

It was midnight a day or two before Christmas when we arrived at the
"Post" in Leipsic. My luggage was put on a diminutive sledge and dragged
along the snow-bound street, I running by its side to keep body and soul
together. Nobody knows till he has tried it how hot a run in the bitter
cold can make one, particularly when one's heart beats at the thought of
a welcome, and one's mind is all ablaze with the brilliant images of
those one loves. There I was at last in the new home and folded in the
old embrace.

Once settled, the question soon arose what was to be done with me next,
and a decision was come to, to send me for a short time to the Bau
Schule (School of Architecture). Those wooden bricks of my early
boyhood, and the table with the many compartments, had gone the way of
all good bricks and tables, but my love for architecture remained, and I
now sometimes regret that I was not to continue my studies in that
direction till I had had the regular classical education; but so it was.
By the time I had learnt how to stretch a sheet of paper on a
drawing-board, and how to handle the compasses and T-square, and just
when I was getting to know something about the price of tiles and the
mixing of mortar, I left the Bau Schule, and was entered at the Thomas
Schule. That was a famous old institution. The whole upper storey of the
school was occupied by a number of free pupils, the "Thomaner"
choir-boys. They were celebrated throughout Germany as the best si