which Wieck
and his wife were eager enough to turn into mistrust.

Schumann's compositions no longer frequented Clara's programmes. He was
driven elsewhere for society, and when the taverns and the boisterous
humour of his friends wearied him, he turned again to Frau Voigt. In
March he had written to his sister:

"I am in a critical position; to extricate myself I must be calm and
clear-sighted; it has come to this, either I can never speak to her
again, or she must be mine."

By November such an estrangement had come between the lovers that he
could write his sister-in-law:

"Clara loves me as dearly as ever, but I am resigned. I am often at the
Voigts."

Since February of the year 1836, they had not spoken or exchanged any
letters. He never heard her beloved music, except at two concerts, or
when at night he would stand outside of her house and listen in secret
loneliness. In May he dedicated to her his Sonata in F Sharp Minor. It
was, as he expressed it: "One long cry of my heart for you, in which a
theme of yours appears in all possible forms." His Opus 6, dated the
same year, was his wonderfully emotional group, "The Davidsbuendlertaenze."
The opening number is based upon a theme by Clara Wieck, and in certain
of the chords written in syncopation, I always feel that I hear him
calling aloud, "Clara! Clara!"

His hope that this musical appeal might bring her to him was in vain,
and he began to doubt her faith. He passed through one of those
terrific crises of melancholia which at long intervals threatened his
reason. On the eve of the New Year, he wrote to his sister-in-law:

"Oh, continue to love me--sometimes I am seized with mortal anguish,
and then I have no one but you who really seem to hold me in your arms
and to protect me. Farewell."

To Clara, at a later time, he described this trial of his hope:

"I had given up and then the old anguish broke out anew--then I wrung
my hands--then I often prayed at night to God: 'Only let me live
through this one torment without going mad.' I thought once to find
your engagement announced in the paper--that bowed my neck to the dust
till I cried aloud. Then I wished to heal myself by forcing myself to
love a woman who already had me half in her net."

Love by act of Parliament, or by individual resolve, has never been
accomplished; and Schumann's efforts were foredoomed. In the meanwhile,
the Wiecks tried the same treatment upon Clara, whose singing-teacher,