d told her how well they would get along on their united
resources. He gave them in detail and it is interesting to pry into the
personal affairs of so great a musician. He wrote: "Am I not an expert
accountant? and can't we once in a while drink champagne?"

Clara's letter provoked in Schumann a wild outcry of disappointment,
that after all these years he should accept as his dole only further
procrastination. He wrote her that his family were beginning to say
that if she loved him she would ask no further delay. Clara's letter
seems to have been only her last tribute to her father, for, at
Schumann's first protest, she hastened to write that she could endure
anything, except his doubt; that she would be with him on Easter, 1840,
come what would. This cheered him mightily, and he wrote that, while he
was still unable to compose, owing to his loneliness, a beautiful
future was awaiting him. He described his dreams of the life of art and
love they should lead, composing and making all manner of beautiful
music.

"Once I call you mine, you shall hear plenty of new things, for I think
you will encourage me; and hearing more of my compositions will be
enough to cheer me up. And we will publish some things under our two
names, so that posterity may regard us as one heart and one soul, and
may not know which is yours and which is mine. How happy I am! From
your Romanze I again see plainly that we are to be man and wife. Every
one of your thoughts comes out of my soul, just as I owe all my music
to you."

Now he sent for her decision a formidable document, an appeal to the
court, to compel the father's consent. Clara wrote her father an
ultimatum on the subject, and received a long letter in reply, in which
he consented to the marriage under such terms that they were better off
before. For his consent was to be made on the following six
stipulations: 1. That Robert and Clara, so long as Wieck lived, should
not make their residence in Saxony; but that Schumann must none the
less make as much money in the new home as his _Zeitschrift_ brought
him in Leipzig. 2. That Wieck should control Clara's property for five
years, paying her, during that time, five per cent. 3. That Schumann
should make out a sworn statement of his income which he had given
Wieck in Leipzig in September, 1837, and turn it over to Wieck's
lawyer. 4. That Schumann should not communicate with him verbally or by
letter, until he himself expressed the wish. 5