the Rondo with the two fingers which in the _gettatura_ are
supposed to lay the evil spirit; and Rossini so fully entered into this
serio-comic solution of the difficulty, that he expressed his warm
approval, and added Pfeiffer's fingering to the manuscript.

Henri Wieniawski, the violinist, and his brother Joseph, the pianist,
were also great friends of Rossini's. He was present at Henri's wedding.
The bride, Miss Hampton, was lovely, the guests distinguished, and the
wedding breakfast sumptuous, and all would have gone well if the best
man--or the next best--had not unfortunately made an eloquent speech to
propose the health of a near and dear relative of the bride's who had
been buried not so very long ago.

On those famous Saturday evenings I was a frequent visitor and attentive
listener, but my own performances were reserved for those occasions when
I was alone with the master.

He knew me to be the unworthy bearer of an honoured musical name, but he
had by chance discovered that, however great my deficiencies, there was
a little musical vein in me which he thought I might exploit. It is
regrettable that one cannot write one's reminiscences without mentioning
one's self. Things go so smoothly as long as one records the doings of
others, but become so puzzling when one has to introduce the _Ego_.
Between self-laudation and mock modesty there is not much to choose, and
if you try to steer clear of the one, you are sure to fall into the
other. I must take my chance though, and say that that vein of music,
encouraged by the kind maestro, has many a time been a source of
infinite delight to me, and to my friends too, or they would not have
dragged me to the piano whenever they felt that they had had enough good
music and now wanted the other thing. I would show them how easy it is
to compose a masterpiece if you only know the secrets of the trade, and
I would notably convince them that, if they would follow some very
simple directions of mine, they could then and there write an Italian
opera.

Singing-masters, it is well known, never agree as to the best way of
cultivating a voice entrusted to their care. One will work a
mezzo-soprano downwards to a contralto, the other upwards to a high
soprano. With me the wiseacres never could settle which of my voices I
ought to have developed--my bass voice, my tenor, or my soprano. In the
meanwhile I alternately used each, distributing them according to the
dramatic needs of