nd soon after her marriage to the
actor Lange, who proved a jealous husband, he wrote home his decision to
wed her younger sister, Constance. After much opposition from members of
both families, he carried out his intention.

As in Haydn's case, the young couple were forced to live on "bread and
cheese and kisses," with none too much of the first two articles.
Mozart, more than any other composer, met with undeserved hardships. On
every side his music was praised and his genius admired, but nobles and
princes, and even the emperor, would give him no material aid. He made a
devoted husband, and much of the money that disappeared so readily from
his hands was probably used for the benefit of his wife, whose health
was not of the best. Their life (in Vienna at first) was a continual
effort to solve the old vexed problem of making both ends meet, and
Constance must be given high praise for the wonderful skill with which
she managed the small and uncertain income of her husband. Several times
the young couple were brought face to face with the direst need, but
their patience and cheerfulness carried them through the crisis. On one
occasion, when there was no fuel on hand and no money to buy any, a
visitor found the pair busily engaged in waltzing about their bare room
in order to keep warm. At another time they were rescued from their
extremity only by the kindness of their friend, the Baroness
Waldstaetten, who intervened just in time to save them from beggary.
After three years, Leopold Mozart relented enough to visit his
daughter-in-law, whom he found far more deserving than he had expected;
but he himself was not well off, and could be of little financial help.

That Constance was of great aid to her husband, in spite of an
easy-going nature, cannot be doubted. She possessed the faculty of
telling interesting stories and novelettes, and with this apparently
inexhaustible fund of invention she would amuse him between his periods
of work. The description that we have of the composition of the great
"Don Giovanni" overture gives a pleasing illustration of this phase of
the family life. Owing to rehearsals and other work, the day before the
performance arrived with no overture yet written. In the evening,
according to his custom, Mozart began the task by sketching out the
themes and a general plan of construction for the work. Near him sat his
wife, ready to entertain him with her pleasing tales when he looked up
from his w