pretty; round, without being called fat. It is not through rouge, false
hair, or false teeth, that she procures herself youth; it lies in her
soul, and from thence it flows into every limb--every motion becomes
charming! She fills you with astonishment! her eyes are full of
expression, and her voice is the most sonorous which I know! It is
indeed music! How can one think of age when one is affected by an
immortal soul? I rave about Leontine Fay, but the old Mars has my heart.
There is also a third who stands high with the Parisians--Jenny Vertpre,
at the Gymnase Dramatique, but she would be soon eclipsed were the
Parisians to see our Demoiselle Paetges. She possesses talent which will
shine in every scene. Vertpre has her loveliness, her whims, but not
her Proteus-genius, her nobility. I saw Vertpre in 'La Reine de Seize
Ans,'--a piece which we have not yet; but she was only a saucy soubrette
in royal splendor--a Pernille of Holberg's, as represented by a
Parisian. We have Madame Wexschall, and we have Frydendal! Were Denmark
only a larger country, these names would sound throughout Europe!"

He now described the decorations in the "Sylphide," in "Natalia," and in
various other ballets, the whole splendor, the whole magnificence.

"But our orchestra is excellent!" said Miss Sophie.

"It certainly contains several distinguished men," answered Joachim;
"but must one speak of the whole? Yes, you know I am not musical, and
cannot therefore express myself in an artistical manner about music,
but certain it is that something lay in my ear, in my feeling, which, in
Paris, whispered to me, 'That is excellent!' Here, on the contrary, it
cries, 'With moderation! with moderation!' The voice is the first; she
is the lady; the instruments, on the contrary, are the cavaliers who
shall conduct the former before the public. Gently they should take her
by the hand; she must stand quite foremost; but here the instruments
thrust her aside, and it is to me as if each instrument would have the
first place, and constantly shouted, 'Here am I! here am I!"

"That sounds very well!" said Sophie; "but one may not believe you!
You have fallen in love with foreign countries, and, therefore, at home
everything must be slighted."

"By no means! The Danish ladies, for instance, appear the prettiest, the
most modest whom I have known."

"Appear?" repeated Otto.

"Joachim possesses eloquence," said the lady of the house.

"That has developed i