She always said, “One had to forgive him, one had to be good to him, since he was himself so good.”

Four children were born to the devoted couple, all sons; the first child lived, as we have seen, only six months; the second was named Carl; the third was named Leopold; the fourth, Wolfgang Amadeus.  Nohl says, “His wife’s recovery on these occasions was always very tedious.”

In 1787 Mozart’s father died, and his letters to his sister show the depth of his grief.  Nannerl had married three years before.  Her first lover had relinquished her on account of her poverty, but she had captured a widower of means and position.

Mozart’s letters to Constanze are not very numerous, because he was away from home neither often nor long.  But they make up in tenderness and radiant congeniality what they lack in numbers.  In 1789 he decided that a concert tour was necessary to replenish his flattened resources and to take him out of the rut in which the emperor was gradually dropping him as a mere composer of dance music for masked balls at the court.  Mozart travelled in the carriage of his friend and pupil, Prince Carl Lichnowsky; and those who consider railroad travelling unpoetical will do well to read in Mozart’s and Beethoven’s letters the vivid pictures of the downright misery and tedium of the traveller of that time, even in a princely carriage, to say nothing of the common diligence.  Mozart wrote to his wife frequently, and always in the most loverly fashion.  He ends his first letter on this journey as follows: 

“At nine o’clock at night we start for Dresden, where we hope to arrive to-morrow.  My darling wife, I do so long for news of you!  Perhaps I may find a letter from you in Dresden.  May Providence realise this wish! [O Gott! mache meine Wuensche wahr!] After receiving my letter, you must write to me Poste Restante, Leipzig.  Adieu, love!  I must conclude, or I shall miss the post.  Kiss our Carl a thousand times for me, and [ich bin Dich von ganzem Herzen kuessend, Dein ewig getreuer Mozart] I am, kissing you with all my heart, your ever faithful,

MOZART.”

"Adieu! aime-moi et gardez votre sante, si precieuse a votre epoux." In his next, three days later, he says: 

“MY DARLING WIFE:—­Would that I had a letter from you!  If I were to tell you all my follies about your dear portrait, it would make you laugh.  For instance, when I take it out of its case, I say to it, God bless you, my Stanzerl!  God bless you Spitzbub, Krallerballer, Spitzignas, Bagatellerl, schluck, und druck! and when I put it away again, I let it slip gently into its hiding-place, saying, Now, now, now, now! [Nu—­nu—­nu—­nu!] but with an appropriate emphasis on this significant word; and at the last one I say, quickly, ’Good night, darling mouse, sleep soundly!’ I know I have written something very foolish (for the world at all events), but not in the least foolish for us, who love each other so fondly.  This is the sixth day that I have been absent from you, and, by heavens! it seems to me a year.  Love me as I shall ever love you.  I send you a million of the most tender kisses, and am ever your fondly loving husband.”