Sir Charles Halle tells about seeing Paganini in Paris, where he used to spend an hour every day sitting in a publisher’s shop, “a striking, awe-inspiring, ghostlike figure.”  Halle was introduced to him, but conversation was difficult, for Paganini sat there taciturn, rigid, hardly ever moving a muscle of his face.  He made the young pianist play for him frequently, indicating his desire by pointing at the piano with his long, bony hand, without speaking.  Halle was dying to hear the great violinist play, and one day, after they had enjoyed a long silence, Paganini rose and went to his violin case.  He took the violin out, and began to tune it carefully with his fingers, without using the bow.  Halle’s agitation was becoming intolerable, for he thought that the moment had arrived at which his desire was to be gratified.  But when Paganini had satisfied himself that his violin was all right, he carefully put it back in the case and shut it up.

Paganini was notoriously parsimonious, and it was related that one evening in Florence he left his hotel rather late, jumped into a coach and ordered the man to drive him to the theatre.  The distance was short, but he felt that it would not do to keep the public waiting.  He was to play the prayer from “Moses” on one string.  On arrival at the theatre he asked the driver, “How much?” “For you,” replied the Jehu, “ten francs.”  “What?  Ten francs?  You joke,” replied the virtuoso.  “It is only the price of a ticket to your concert,” was the excuse.  Paganini hesitated a moment, and then handed to the man what he considered to be a fair remuneration, saying, “I will pay you ten francs when you drive me on one wheel.”

At one time Paganini astonished the world by making to Hector Berlioz the magnificent present of twenty thousand francs.  Berlioz was at that time almost in a state of despair.  His compositions were not appreciated, and he was at a loss to know which way to turn.  He made a final effort and gave a last concert, at which Paganini was present and congratulated him.

Jules Janin, the celebrated critic and writer, went into ecstasies over the affair.  Paganini, he said, who had been attacked for hard-heartedness and avarice, was present at the concert, and at the end prostrated himself before Berlioz, and shed tears.  Hope returned and Berlioz went home in triumph, for he had satisfied one great musical critic.  The next day he received a note from Paganini enclosing twenty thousand francs, to be devoted to three years of repose, study, liberty, and happiness.

In Sir Charles Halle’s biography, however, this story receives important modifications.  It appears that Armand Bertin, the wealthy proprietor of the Journal des Debates, had a high regard for Berlioz, who was on his staff, and knew of his struggles, which he was anxious to lighten.  He resolved, therefore, to make him a present of twenty thousand francs, and to enhance the moral effect of this gift he persuaded