I shall live to hear the decision of the
court." As soon as Clara left Paris he hastened toward her and met her
at Altenburg. It was a blissful reunion after a year of separation, and
they went together to Berlin, where they knew the bliss of sitting once
more at the piano together, playing Bach fugues. She found his genius
still what it was,--"_er fantasiert himmlisch_"--but his health was in
such serious condition that she was greatly frightened.

Now her father proceeded to destroy every claim he may ever have had on
her sympathy by his ferocity toward a daughter who had been so patient
and so gentle toward him. He not only neglected her in Paris, except to
write her merciless letters, but when she returned and he saw himself
confronted with the lawsuit for her liberty, he offered a revision of
his terms, which was in itself worse than the original. Clara describes
the new offer:

"I must surrender the 2,000 thalers (about $1,500) which I have saved
from seven years' concerts, and give it to my brothers.

"He would give back my effects and instruments, but I must later pay
1,000 thalers and give this also to my brothers.

"Robert must transfer to me 8,000 thalers of his capital, the interest
of which shall come to me, also the capital, in case of a
separation--What a hideous thought! Robert has 12,000 thalers, and
shall he give his wife two-thirds?"

Robert had already given her four hundred thalers in bonds. The new
terms being rejected, Wieck put everything possible in the way of a
speedy termination of the lawsuit. He made it impossible for Clara to
get back to Paris, as she wished, to earn more money before the
marriage. He demanded that she should postpone her wedding and take a
concert tour for three months with him for a consideration of six
thousand thalers. Clara declined the arrangement.

One day she sent her maid to the house of her father, and asked him for
her winter cloak. He gave this answer to the maid: "Who then is this
Mam'selle Wieck? I know two Fraeulein Wieck only; they are my two little
daughters here. I know no other!" As Litzmann says: "With so shrill a
dissonance ended Clara's stay at Leipzig." He compares this exile of
the daughter by the father to the story of King Lear and Cordelia. But
it was the blind and tyrannical old Lear of the first act, driving from
his home his most loving child. On October 3d, Clara went back to
Berlin to her mother. Her father moved heaven and earth to ma