n, which could hardly fail
to follow Mozart's increasing fame. If the anxiety which always pressed
upon him, more or less, could be lightened; if, instead of devoting half
his strength and time to earning money he could live only for his art,
and, moreover, could enjoy with a clear conscience those pleasures which
he needed for body and mind, then he would grow calmer and more natural.
She hoped, indeed, for an opportunity to leave Vienna, for, in spite of
his affection for the place, she was convinced that he would never
prosper there. Some decisive step toward the realization of her plans
and wishes she promised herself as the result of the new opera, for
which they were now on their way to Prague.

The composition was more than half written. Trusty friends and competent
judges who had heard the beginning of the work talked of it with such
enthusiasm that many of Mozart's enemies, even, were prepared to hear,
within six months, that his _Don Juan_ had taken all Germany by storm.
His more prudent and moderate friends, who took into consideration the
state of the public taste, hardly expected an immediate and universal
success; and with these the master himself secretly agreed.

Constanze, however, was like all women. If once they hope, particularly
in a righteous cause, they are less apt than men are to give heed to
discouraging features. She still held fast to her favorable opinion, and
had, even now, new occasion to defend it. She did so in her gay and
lively fashion, the more earnestly because Mozart's spirits had fallen
decidedly in the course of the previous conversation. She described
minutely how, after their return, she should use the hundred ducats
which the manager at Prague would pay for the score. That sum would
supply their most pressing needs, and they could live comfortably till
spring.

"Your Herr Bondine will make some money with this opera, you may be
sure; and if he is half as honest as you think him, he will give you
later also a fair per cent. of the price that other theatres pay him for
their copies of _Don Juan_. But, even if he doesn't, there are plenty of
other good things that might happen to us; they are more probable too!"

"What, for instance?"

"A little bird told me that the King of Prussia needs a leader for his
orchestra."

"Oh!"

"A general music director, I mean. Let me build you an air-castle! That
weakness I got from my mother."

"Build away! The higher the better!"

"No