nne, the second daughter of this hospitable household, a
beautiful girl of remarkably brilliant mind, I had formed so intimate,
almost fraternal, a friendship, that both she and her warm-hearted mother
called me "Cousin Schorge."

Frau Dirichlet, the wife of the great mathematician, the sister of Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, in whose social and musical home I spent hours of
pleasure which will never be forgotten, also expressed her anxiety about
my loss of flesh. When a girl she had often met my mother, and at my
first visit she won my affection by her eager praise of that beloved
woman's charms.

As the whole family were extremely musical they could afford themselves
and their friends a great deal of enjoyment. I have never heard Joachim
play so entrancingly as to her accompaniment. At a performance in her own
house, where the choruses from Cherubini's Water-Carrier were given, she
herself had rehearsed the music with those who were to take part, and to
hear her play on the piano was a treat.

This lady, a remarkable woman in every respect, who gave me many tokens
of maternal affection, insisted on the right to warn me. She did this by
reminding me, with delicate feminine tact, of my mother when she heard of
a wager which I now remember with grave disapproval. This was to empty an
immense number of bottles of the heavy Wurzburg Stein wine and yet remain
perfectly sober. My opponent, who belonged to the Brunswick Corps, lost,
but as soon after I was attacked by illness, though not in consequence of
this folly, which had occurred about a fortnight before, he could not
give the breakfast which I had won. But he fulfilled his obligation; for
when, several lustra later, I visited his native city of Hamburg as a
Leipsic professor, to deliver an address before the Society of Art and
Science, he arranged a splendid banquet, at which I met several old
Gottingen friends.

The term was nearly over when an entertainment was given to the corps by
one of its aristocratic members. It was a very gay affair. A band of
music played, and we students danced with one another. I was one of the
last to depart, long after midnight, and on looking for my overcoat I
could not find it. One of the guests had mistaken it for his, and the
young gentleman's servant had carried his own home. This was unfortunate,
for mine contained my door-key.

Heated by dancing, in a dress-coat, with a thin white necktie, I went out
into the night air. It was