until the lady granted the composer some particular favors, and he (with an absence of discretion unusual to musicians) boasted to his friends of his good fortune in securing the lady's regard.
His words coming to the ears of the fair damsel, and disliking to have her private affairs made public talk (she would never have made a modern opera songstress), she determined to be revenged for his gossiping about her, and gave him his quietus, not with a bare bodkin, but in a cup of poisoned chocolate!
This summary method will doubtless commend itself to all who suffer from indiscreet friends.
27.—RATHER A HARD OPPONENT TO CONQUER.
It is not always safe to deride one whose abilities seem to be less than our own. This lesson was painfully learned by a young violinist of Berlin at an evening party, to which he had been invited. He played several pieces, not with great applause, however. Afterwards another young man was invited to play, but his playing was worse than that of his predecessor; in fact his style and execution were wretched. So our young professor again came forward and showed his superior abilities in a very pretentious way, as if to utterly crush the strange musician. But when it again became the stranger's turn to play, his performance was given with such expression and brilliancy of execution as to utterly vanquish the young upstart, who disappeared and was seen no more that evening. He had been contending with Paganini.
28.—CATALANI AND GOETHE.
Angelica Catalani was a singer who held sway in Europe for thirty years in the last century, as the peer of all prime donne. It has been said that never has the public been so carried away by the voice of any songstress as by hers. One writer calls her the "Paganini
