further acquaintance with this man's peculiarities, and after
having heard of other instances of a similar nature. I then
discovered that Holtei considered it an advantage to get himself
talked about in connection with pretty women, in order thus to
divert the attention of the public from other conduct even more
disreputable. After this Minna was exceedingly indignant at
Holtei, who, finding his own suit rejected, appeared as the
medium for another suitor, on whose behalf he urged that he would
think none the worse of her for rejecting him, a grey-haired and
penniless man, but at the same time advocated the suit of
Brandenburg, a very wealthy and handsome young merchant. His
fierce indignation at this double repulse, his humiliation at
having revealed his real nature to no purpose, seems, to judge
from Minna's observations, to have been exceedingly great. I now
understood too well that his frequent and profoundly contemptuous
sallies against respectable actors and actresses had not been
mere spirited exaggerations, but that he had probably often had
to complain of being put thoroughly to shame on this account.

The fact that the playing of such criminal parts as the one he
had had in view with my wife was unable to divert the ever-
increasing attention of the outside world from his vicious and
dissolute habits, does not seem to have escaped him; for those
behind the scenes told me candidly that it was owing to the fear
of very unpleasant revelations that he had suddenly decided to
give up his position at Riga altogether. Even in much later years
I heard about Holtei's bitter dislike of me, a dislike which
showed itself, among other things, in his denunciation of The
Music of the Future, [Footnote: Zukunftsmusik is a pamphlet
revealing some of Wagner's artistic aims and aspirations, written