loud laugh which reassured me somewhat. It was impossible to get
any advice or coherent reasons for his opinion out of Kuhnlein;
he merely renewed his abuse of Weber and made some references to
Mozart which, nevertheless, made a deep impression upon me, as
Kuhnlein's language was always very heated and emphatic.

On the other hand, this visit brought me a great treasure, which
was responsible for leading me in a very different direction from
that advised by Kuhnlein. This was the score of Beethoven's great
Quartette in E flat major, which had only been fairly recently
published, and of which my brother-in-law had a copy made for me.
Richer in experience, and in the possession of this treasure, I
returned to Leipzig to the nursery of my queer musical studies.
But my family had now returned with my sister Rosalie, and I
could no longer keep secret from them the fact that my connection
with the school had been entirely suspended, for a notice was
found saying that I had not attended the school for the last six
months. As a complaint addressed by the rector to my uncle about
me had not received adequate attention, the school authorities
had apparently made no further attempts to exercise any
supervision over me, which I had indeed rendered quite impossible
by absenting myself altogether.

A fresh council of war was held in the family to discuss what was
to be done with me. As I laid particular stress on my bent for
music, my relations thought that I ought, at any rate, to learn
one instrument thoroughly. My brother-in-law, Brockhaus, proposed
to send me to Hummel, at Weimar, to be trained as a pianist, but
as I loudly protested that by 'music' I meant 'composing,' and
not 'playing an instrument,' they gave way, and decided to let me