to ask this.  She advised Robert to take up the book business of his brother, who had succeeded his father’s prosperous trade.  Even while Clara’s tear-stained appeal was going to him, another letter of his crossed hers.  It was full of joy and told her how well they would get along on their united resources.  He gave them in detail and it is interesting to pry into the personal affairs of so great a musician.  He wrote:  “Am I not an expert accountant? and can’t we once in a while drink champagne?”

Clara’s letter provoked in Schumann a wild outcry of disappointment, that after all these years he should accept as his dole only further procrastination.  He wrote her that his family were beginning to say that if she loved him she would ask no further delay.  Clara’s letter seems to have been only her last tribute to her father, for, at Schumann’s first protest, she hastened to write that she could endure anything, except his doubt; that she would be with him on Easter, 1840, come what would.  This cheered him mightily, and he wrote that, while he was still unable to compose, owing to his loneliness, a beautiful future was awaiting him.  He described his dreams of the life of art and love they should lead, composing and making all manner of beautiful music.

“Once I call you mine, you shall hear plenty of new things, for I think you will encourage me; and hearing more of my compositions will be enough to cheer me up.  And we will publish some things under our two names, so that posterity may regard us as one heart and one soul, and may not know which is yours and which is mine.  How happy I am!  From your Romanze I again see plainly that we are to be man and wife.  Every one of your thoughts comes out of my soul, just as I owe all my music to you.”

Now he sent for her decision a formidable document, an appeal to the court, to compel the father’s consent.  Clara wrote her father an ultimatum on the subject, and received a long letter in reply, in which he consented to the marriage under such terms that they were better off before.  For his consent was to be made on the following six stipulations:  1.  That Robert and Clara, so long as Wieck lived, should not make their residence in Saxony; but that Schumann must none the less make as much money in the new home as his Zeitschrift brought him in Leipzig. 2.  That Wieck should control Clara’s property for five years, paying her, during that time, five per cent. 3.  That Schumann should make out a sworn statement of his income which he had given Wieck in Leipzig in September, 1837, and turn it over to Wieck’s lawyer. 4.  That Schumann should not communicate with him verbally or by letter, until he himself expressed the wish. 5.  That Clara should renounce all claims as to her inheritance. 6.  That the marriage should take place September 29, 1839.

This insolent and mercenary protocol drove Clara to bay.  She wrote her father from the depths of grief, and declared to him finally that she would wed Schumann on the 24th of June.  Schumann wrote a short note to the old man, telling him that if he did not hear in eight days, silence would be taken as the last refusal.  The answer was simply a letter from Frau Wieck, acknowledging Schumann’s “impertinent letter,” and saying that Wieck would not hold any communication with him.