ties can easily be imagined; nor, upon her making mention of
some little Courland _Volkslieder_ or popular songs, did I desist from
my entreaties until she stretched out her left hand towards the
instrument and tried a few notes by way of introduction. I rose to make
way for her at the piano, but she would not permit me to do so,
asserting that she could not play a single chord, and for that reason,
since she would have to sing without accompaniment, her performance
would be poor and uncertain. She began in a sweet voice, pure as a
bell, that came straight from her heart, and sang a song whose simple
melody bore all the characteristics of those _Volkslieder_ which
proceed from the lips with such a lustrous brightness, so to speak,
that we cannot help perceiving in the glad light which surrounds us our
own higher poetic nature. There lies a mysterious charm in the
insignificant words of the text which converts them into a hieroglyphic
scroll representative of the unutterable emotions which throng our
hearts. Who does not know that Spanish canzonet the substance of which
is in words little more than, "With my maiden I embarked on the sea; a
storm came on, and my timid maiden was tossed up and down: nay, I will
never again embark on the sea with my maiden?" And the Baroness's
little song contained nothing more than, "Lately I was dancing with my
sweetheart at a wedding; a flower fell out of my hair; he picked it up
and gave it me, and said, 'When, sweetheart mine, shall we go to a
wedding again?'" When, on her beginning the second verse of the song, I
played an _arpeggio_ accompaniment, and further when, in the
inspiration which now took possession of me, I at once stole from the
Baroness's own lips the melodies of the other songs she sang, I
doubtless appeared in her eyes, and in those of the Lady Adelheid, to
be one of the greatest of masters in the art of music, for they
overwhelmed me with enthusiastic praise. The lights and illuminations
from the ball-room, situated in one of the wings of the castle, now
shone across into the Baroness's chamber, whilst a discordant bleating
of trumpets and French horns announced that it was time to gather for
the ball. "Oh, now I must go," said the Baroness. I started up from the
pianoforte. "You have afforded me a delightful hour; these have been
the pleasantest moments I have ever spent in R--sitten," she added,
offering me her hand; and as in the extreme intoxication of delight I
pr