introduction to fair Anna and had been refused peremptorily, as all
had been refused. He planned to have revenge for it. "The man who
merely plays is not so vastly better off, there in the states, than
here; but to the _artist_--to the real artist, such as you--the states
will literally pay anything."

That the man who had found failure was not a real musician Kreutzer
knew. Too often had his trombone trespassed, with its brazen bray,
upon the time which the composer had allotted to the soft, delightful
flute, to leave the slightest doubt of its performer's rank
incompetence. That he had failed was, therefore, easily understood;
in no way did it indicate that all he said about the chances of a real
musician in the land of skyscrapers and mighty distances (which he
also told about at length) was of necessity untrue. It had been the
talk of this man which had fascinated Kreutzer; it was the city of
this man's wild fancy which the flute-player expected to encounter
when he reached New York.

The disillusionment came slowly at the start. Certainly the
skyscrapers were existent in a number and a grandeur which the man had
not been able to exaggerate; certainly the railway trains ran up and
down on iron stilts as he had said they did; certainly the crowds were
mighty and amazing both in their brutality and their good nature, just
as he had said they were. Many things there were which, for a time,
preserved the innocent flute-player's faith in his informant. But when
he came to look for work--ah, then vanished the first bubble.
Seemingly there was no place in all the city for an old performer on
the flute save that which Karrosch offered and which Kreutzer would
not take.