hat he wrote--was a possession born of suffering and solitude,
though never of ignorance, and as such it represented the truest as
well as the freest expression of his musical soul. With the dawn of
brighter days he had procured and studied all the works on theory that
were to be obtained, only to find himself strengthened in his
determination to adhere to the line which those hours of lonely study
and reflection had shown him to be the right one for him to adopt.
Few, indeed, of those who had risen to be masters in music could claim
to have been less influenced by the composers of their own or a
previous day than could Joseph Haydn; and the progress of our story
will show in what manner opportunity favoured the further growth and
development of that independence which even at the present stage had
impressed its stamp upon his works.

We must first of all, however, relate what befell our hero in a very
different sphere from that in which we have hitherto followed his
fortunes.

Some time before the period at which our story has arrived, Haydn had
been engaged to teach the harpsichord to the two daughters of a
wig-maker named Keller. As the lessons progressed the teacher became
conscious of a growing attachment for the younger of his pupils. There
was something spiritual about the character of this maiden which
appealed strongly to his musical temperament, though probably the
loneliness of his life at the time may have added force to his longing
to possess her for his wife. His poverty, however, must have convinced
him of the hopelessness of declaring himself at the moment, and for
some time his love remained as a cherished secret, fed by the hope
which formed almost his sole resource. But now that fortune had smiled
upon him he ventured to press his cause with assurance--albeit it must
be confessed that this assurance rested on no more secure basis than a
salary of some twenty pounds a year and the prospect of an extended
teaching connection. But his hopes were doomed to disappointment, for
the maiden had in the meantime elected to take the veil, prompted so
to do, most probably, by the very same leanings which had rendered her
nature so attractive to poor Haydn.

Could he but have been content to bear with his disappointment,
seeking in his art the consolation which she had it in her power to
bestow, Haydn would have been saved much unhappiness in the future.
Most likely he would have adopted this course in the end,