y, even with the eyes of a
child, will ever forget it? Yet I have never recalled that last
beautiful day more vividly than today in your garden. When I closed my
eyes the last veil vanished, and I saw the lovely spot--sea and shore,
mountain and city, the gay throng of people, and the wonderful game of
ball. I seemed to hear the same music--a stream of joyful melodies, old
and new, strange and familiar, one after another. Presently a little
dance-song came along, in six-eighth measure, something quite new to me.
Hold on, I thought, that is a devilishly cute little tune! I listened
more closely. Good Heavens! That is Masetto, that is Zerlina!" He smiled
and nodded at Madame Mozart, who guessed what was coming.

"It was this way," he went on; "there was a little, simple number of my
first act unfinished--the duet and chorus of a country wedding. Two
months ago, when in composing my score I came to this number, the right
theme did not present itself at the first attempt. It should be a simple
child-like melody, sparkling with joy--a fresh bunch of flowers tucked
in among a maiden's fluttering ribbons. So, because one should not
force such a thing, and because such trifles often come of themselves, I
left that number, and was so engrossed in the rest of the work that I
almost forgot it. Today, while we were driving along, just outside the
village, the text came into my head; but I cannot remember that I
thought much about it. Yet, only an hour later, in the arbor by the
fountain, I caught just the right _motif_, more happily than I could
have found it in any other way, at any other time. An artist has strange
experiences now and then, but such a thing never happened to me be fore.
For to find a melody exactly fitted to the verse--but I must not
anticipate. The bird had only his head out of the shell, and I proceeded
to pull off the rest of it! Meantime Zerlina's dance floated before my
eyes, and, somehow, too, the view on the Gulf of Naples. I heard the
voices of the bridal couple, and the chorus of peasants, men and girls."
Here Mozart gayly hummed the beginning of the song. "Meantime my hands
had done the mischief, Nemesis was lurking near, and suddenly appeared
in the shape of the dreadful man in livery. Had an eruption of Vesuvius
suddenly destroyed and buried with its rain of ashes audience and
actors, the whole majesty of Parthenope, on that heavenly day by the
sea, I could not have been more surprised or horrified. Th