PART TWO

V. ENTERING THE WORLD 81

Engaged. The engagement ended. Baden. Marietta. Season in Rome. Carnival at Venice.

VI. A SEASON IN HOMBURG VOR DER HÖHE 95

Our way of living. My first singing lessons. The Princess of Mingrelia. Tsar Alexander II. Adelina Patti.

VII. HERACLIUS OF GEORGIA 109

A disappointed dream of love.

VIII. NOVITIATE IN ART 119

Back to Baden. Singing lessons. Great hopes. A test before Madame Viardot.

IX. THE YEAR 1866 132

Return. Elvira’s death. Fürstenberg’s death. The war. Homburg once more. Back to Baden. Baron Koller.

X. RESIDENCE IN PARIS 144

Singing lessons resumed. Maître Duprez. The school in the Rue Laval. In the house of the Princess of Mingrelia. In the imperial box at the opera. Summer at Duprez’s place in the country. Return to Paris. Princess Salomé’s engagement. Prince Achille Murat. The wedding. With the young couple. Off to Baden-Baden.

XI. SEASON IN BADEN-BADEN 158

Resumption of trente-et-quarante. Baroness Seutter. Acquaintance with King William I of Prussia. A letter from the king.

XII. PARIS AGAIN 163

Return to Paris. Renunciation of an artistic career. A dream of Australian gold. Betrothal of Heraclius of Georgia.

XIII. THE YEAR 1870–1871 172

Resumption of music study in Milan. Outbreak of the Franco-German War. My double existence in the world of books. Return of the victorious troops to Berlin.

XIV. PRINCE WITTGENSTEIN 177

Duet practice and betrothal. Art journey and—end. Letters from Castle Wittgenstein.