oire on his long concert tours,
and always interested his audiences. The boy had a keen sense of
humour, and always entered heartily into any joke that was made with
him, but sometimes he could be very serious, as for instance, when he
was called to play for the court composer, George Wagenseil, who was
himself a proficient performer on the harpsichord. The Emperor stepped
back when Wagenseil came forward, and Mozart said very seriously to
him:

"I play a concerto by you, you must turn over the pages for me," and
turn the pages the great man did.

The Emperor ordered one hundred ducats to be paid to Wolfgang's father
for the performance, and the Empress, both then and later, was kindness
itself to both the children, and sent them expensive and beautiful
clothes. In writing to a friend at that time, Leopold Mozart said:

"Would you like to know what Wolferl's dress is like? It is the finest
cloth, lilac-coloured, the best of moire of the same colour. Coat and
top-coat with a double broad border of gold."

In the portrait which is in the Mozart collection in Salzburg, Mozart
is painted in this dress, and he wore it with as much ease as if he had
always been used to such finery. Also he never showed any embarrassment
or self-consciousness when in the presence of royalty, and once jumped
on the lap of the Empress, Maria Theresa, put his arms around her neck
and kissed her as effusively as if she had been his mother, while he
treated the princesses as if they were his sisters. Marie Antoinette
was one of his great favourites after she helped him up from a severe
fall on a highly polished floor. To her great amusement he thanked her
by saying:

"You are good. I will marry you," and when the Crown Prince Joseph, who
afterwards became Emperor, played the violin before the little prodigy,
he exclaimed: "Fie!" at something he did not like, then, "that was
false!" at another bar, and finally applauded, with cries of "Bravo!"

Little Nannerl who played only less well than her remarkable brother,
was a charmingly pretty, piquant little girl, whose manner, both in
society and in the concert hall, was winning and demure, while
Wolfgang's grace and elegance of manner were striking. Wherever the
children went, people went mad over them. They were the fashion, the
furore, no musical entertainment was a success without them, and they
were so petted that they might easily have been spoiled, had it not
been for their father's wise an