psichord playing the accompaniment of
a song from the manuscript before him. Every now and then he lifts his
eyes from the music-sheet to let them rest upon the fair young face of
the maiden standing beside him, and that oft-repeated glance reveals
more than admiration for the singer's notes, pure and melodious as her
singing is--more than a recognition of the singer's charms, sweet
beyond question as those charms are; it reveals, in a word, the love
which is burning within the player's breast, a love as yet unspoken,
but beside which even art herself must for the time sink her
supremacy.

Aloysia Weber, the fifteen-year-old maiden for whom Mozart had
conceived this attachment, was the second daughter of Fridolin Weber,
a member of the Elector's band. The young composer had been attracted
first by her voice, and later by her personal beauty, and both of
these gifts had gained in power through the sympathy he felt for the
family who were in poor circumstances. He longed to be able to help
them; Aloysia's singing was of a high order, and only needed to be
heard in public to secure the approval of the connoisseurs; he had
already written a song specially for her, and she sang it as well as
he could wish. Thus he wrote to his father, in the hope of enlisting
the latter's interest in his protege, adding that he only wished his
father could hear her sing. But he gave no indication in the letter of
those deeper feelings which animated his desire to be of use to the
family.

The father, however, was soon to receive a communication which
startled him into a knowledge of the true state of affairs. Wolfgang
had formed a project for helping the Webers by undertaking a journey
to Italy in company with Aloysia and her father, with the object of
writing an opera in which Aloysia should appear as prima donna. Their
plans would embrace, with Leopold's sanction, a visit to Salzburg by
the way, when Wolfgang would have the pleasure of introducing the fair
singer to his parent and 'Nannerl,' by whom he was sure she would be
welcomed and beloved. Leopold was distracted by the proposal. 'What!'
he writes, in reply to Wolfgang's letter, 'are you so mad as to prefer
a vagabond life to Mannheim and fame! Away with you to Paris, and that
immediately. Take up your position among those who are really
great--_aut Caesar aut nihil_. From Paris the name and fame of a man of
talent spreads throughout the world.' The father wisely refrained from
mak