of their heads, and you may applaud them as much as you please,
it will not cause me to change a hair's breadth; I shall remain
the same honest fellow that I have always been."

(Vienna, September 5, 1781, to his father, who was still
listening to the slander mongers. Mozart could not lightly forget
the fact that it was due to these gentlemen that he had been
forced to leave the house of the widow Weber with whose daughter
Constanze he was in love.)

236. "You have been deceived in your son if you could believe him
capable of doing a mean thing....You know that I could not have
acted otherwise without outraging my conscience and my honor....I
beg pardon for my too hasty trust in your paternal love. Through
this frank confession you have a new proof of my love of truth
and detestation of a lie."

(Vienna, August 7, 1782, to his father, whose consent to his
son's marriage did not arrive till the day after.)

237. "Dearest and best of fathers:--I beg of you, for the sake of
all that is good in the world, give your consent to my marriage
with my dear Constanze. Do not think that it is alone because of
my desire to get married; I could well wait. But I see that it is
absolutely essential to my honor, the honor of my sweetheart, to
my health and frame of mind. My heart is ill at ease, my mind
disturbed;--then how shall I do any sensible thinking or work?
Why is this? Most people think we are already married; this
enrages the mother and the poor girl and I are tormented almost
to death. All this can be easily relieved. Believe me it is