, my air-castles are very real ones! In a year from now they'll be
reporting--"

"If the Pope to Gretchen comes a-courting!"

"Keep quiet, you ridiculous goose! I tell you by the first of next
September there will be no 'Imperial Court Composer' of the name of Wolf
Mozart to be found in Vienna."

"May the foxes bite you for that!"

"I hear already what our old friends are saying and gossiping about us."

"What, then?"

"Well, a little after nine o'clock one fine morning our old friend and
admirer Frau Volkstett comes sailing at full speed across the Kahlmarkt.
She has been away for three months. That famous visit to her
brother-in-law in Saxony, that we have heard about every day, has at
last come off. She returned yesterday, and cannot wait any
longer to see her dear friend, the Colonel's wife. Upstairs she goes
and knocks at the door, and does not wait for an answer. You may imagine
the rejoicing and the embracing an both sides. 'Now dearest, best Frau
Colonel,' she begins after the greetings are over, 'I have so many
messages for you. Guess from whom? I didn't come straight from Stendal,
but by way of Brandenburg.'

"'What! Not through Berlin! You haven't been with the Mozarts?' 'Yes,
ten heavenly days!' 'Oh, my dear, good Frau General, tell me all about
them! How are our dear people? Do they like Berlin as well as ever? I
can hardly imagine Mozart living in Berlin! How does he act? How does he
look?' 'Mozart! You should see him! This summer the King sent him to
Karlsbad. When would that have occurred to his dear Emperor Joseph? They
had but just returned when I arrived. He is fairly radiant with health
and good spirits, as sound and solid and lively as quicksilver, with
happiness and comfort beaming from his countenance.'"

And then the speaker began to paint in the brightest colors the glories
of the new position. From their dwelling on Unter den Linden, from their
garden and country-house to the brilliant scenes of public activity and
the smaller circle of the court--where he was to play accompaniments for
the Queen--all were vividly described. She recited, with the greatest
ease, whole conversations, and the most delightful anecdotes. Indeed she
seemed more familiar with Berlin, Potsdam, and Sans Souci than with the
palace at Schoenbrunn and the Emperor Joseph's castle. She was, moreover,
cunning enough to depict our hero with many new domestic virtues which
had developed on the firm ground of the Berlin