a horrible
cut, such as is prescribed by infernal etiquette at the court of
Proserpine. The black trousers hung anxiously around the thin legs.
The long arms appeared to grow still longer, as, holding the violin
in one hand and the bow in the other, he almost touched the floor
with them, while displaying to the public his unprecedented
obeisances. In the angular curves of his body there was a horrible
woodenness, and also something absurdly animal-like, that during
these bows one could not help feeling a strange desire to laugh.
But his face, that appeared still more cadaverously pale in the
glare of the orchestra lights, had about it something so imploring,
so simply humble, that a sorrowful compassion repressed one's
desire to smile. Had he learnt these complimentary bows from an
automaton, or a dog? Is that the entreating gaze of one sick unto
death, or is there lurking behind it the mockery of a crafty
miser? Is that a man brought into the arena at the moment of death,
like a dying gladiator, to delight the public with his convulsions?
Or is it one risen from the dead, a vampire with a violin, who, if
not the blood out of our hearts, at any rate sucks the gold out of
our pockets?

Such questions crossed our minds while Paganini was performing his
strange bows, but all those thoughts were at once still when the
wonderful master placed his violin under his chin and began to
play.

As for me, you already know my musical second-sight, my gift of
seeing at each tone a figure equivalent to the sound, and so
Paganini with each stroke of his bow brought visible forms and
situations before my eyes; he told me in melodious hieroglyphics
all kinds of brilliant tales; he, as it were, made a magic lantern
play its colored antics before me, he himself being chief actor. At
the first stroke of his bow the stage scenery around him had
changed; he suddenly stood with his music-desk in a cheerful room,
decorated in a gay, irregular way after the Pompadour style;
everywhere little mirrors, gilded Cupids, Chinese porcelain, a
delightful chaos of ribbons, garlands of flowers, white gloves,
torn lace, false pearls, powder-puffs, diamonds of gold-leaf and
spangles--such tinsel as one finds in the room of a prima donna.
Paganini's outward appearance had al