, that were never still.

All at once, in a momentary lull, he leant towards Maurice, and,
without even looking up, asked the latter if he could recall the
opening bars of the prelude to TRISTAN UND ISOLDE. If so, there was a
certain point he would like to lay before him.

"You see, it's this way, old fellow," he said confidentially. "I've
come to the conclusion that if, at the end of the third bar, Wagner
had----"

"Throw him out, throw him out!" cried an American who was sitting
opposite them. "You might as well try to stop a nigger in heat as
Krafft on Wagner."

"That's so," said another American named Ford, who, on arriving, had
not been quite sober, and now, after a few glasses of beer, was
exceedingly tipsy. "That's so. As I've always said, it's a disgrace to
the township, a disgrace, sir. Ought to be put down. Why don't he write
them himself?"

From the depths of his brown study, Krafft looked vaguely at the
speakers, and checked, but not discomposed, drew out a notebook and
jotted down an idea.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the table, Boehmer and a Russian violinist
still harped upon the original string. And, having worked out Schilsky,
they passed on to Zeppelin, his master, and the Russian, who was not
Zeppelin's pupil, set to showing with vehemence that his "method" was a
worthless one. He was barely started when a wiry American, in a high,
grating voice, called Schilsky a wretched fool: why had he not gone to
Berlin at Easter, as he had planned, instead of dawdling on here where
he had no more to gain? At this, several of the young men laughed and
looked significant. Furst--he had proved to be a jolly little man, who,
with unbuttoned vest, absorbed large quantities of beer and perspired
freely--Furst alone was of the opinion, which he expressed forcibly, in
his hearty Saxon dialect, that had Schilsky left Leipzig at this
particular time, he would have been a fool indeed.

"Look here, boys," he cried, pounding the table to get attention.
"That's all very well, but he must have an eye to the practical side of
things, too----"

"DER BIEDERE SACHSE HOCH!" threw in Boehmer, who was Prussian, and of a
more ideal cast of mind.

"--and a chance such as this, he will certainly never have again. A
hundred thousand marks, if a pfennig, and a face to turn after in the
street! No, he is a confounded deal wiser to stay here and make sure of
her, for that sort is as slippery as an eel."

"Krafft can tell us;