nts. Professor Herold snapped like a vicious dog, brushed
the white bristles back over his enormous head, and said: "Well, my
young original, you have made a discovery. Don't you know that music
cajoles into its magic circle the very riff-raff of any community? Don't
you know that music is a subterfuge for the neglect of human duty? Don't
you know that the voluptuous fumes it spreads over the cities results in
the general corrosion and consumption of men's hearts? Don't you know
that of every five hundred so-called artists, four hundred and
ninety-nine are nothing but the cripple guard of God above? Therefore he
who does not come to music with the holiest fire burning in the depths
of his soul has his blood in time transformed by it into glue, his mind
into a heap of rubbish."

Whereat he pushed Daniel out of the door, so that he might work
undisturbed on his little pictures. Of these the walls of his room were
full. He painted them in his leisure hours. They were small in size, and
smaller still in merit; but he was proud of them. They represented
scenes from country life.

II

On New Year's Eve, Doermaul, the impresario, gave a dinner in the Little
Swan, to which he invited Daniel. Doermaul was quite well disposed toward
Daniel. He said he had recognised the young man's talents at the sight
of his very first note. He promised to publish "Vineta" and also the
work Daniel had finished in the meantime, entitled "Nuremberg Serenade."
He also seemed inclined to consider favourably Daniel's appointment in
his newly founded opera company.

Among those present at the dinner were Professors Herold and
Wackerbarth, Wurzelmann, a few of the long-haired and a few of the
lost-in-dreams. Andreas Doederlein had promised to come in later. He
appeared, as a matter of fact, five minutes before midnight, and stood
in the wide-opened door as ceremonious as the New Year itself.

He went up to Daniel, and extended him his right hand.

"Look who's here! Our Benjamin and our John, not to mention our Daniel,"
he said, glancing at the last of the trio. "Congratulations, my young
star! What do the annals from Andreas Doederlein's nose for news have to
report? Back in Bayreuth, when we used to draw our wine by the flask, he
merely had to sniffle around a bit to know just how things were. Isn't
that true, Benjamin?"

Nobody denied it. Benjamin let right yield to mercy. The mighty man
removed his storm-c