I had noticed, and I went so far as to speak of the house which people said had been given her as a present.  This seemed to produce an extraordinary effect upon Friederike, who was still an invalid.  She expressed the greatest annoyance at these rumours, although, as she admitted, she had long been obliged to suspect that slander of this kind would be disseminated about her; more than once she had considered the advisability of giving up the Frankfort stage, and now she was more determined than ever to do so.  I saw nothing in her demeanour to shake my confidence in the truth of her story; moreover, as Herr von Guaita became more and more unintelligible to me both as a man and in the light of his incredible conduct on the occasion of Friederike’s illness, my attitude towards this highly gifted girl was henceforth unconditionally on the side of her interests, which were being prejudiced by an obvious injustice.  To facilitate her recovery I advised her, without delay, to take a long holiday for a tour on the Rhine.

In accordance with the instructions conveyed to him by the Grand Duke, Eduard Devrient now addressed me in reference to the appointed performance of Lohengrin in Karlsruhe under my superintendence.  The angry and arrogant disgust expressed in his letter at my desire to see that Lohengrin was produced without ‘cuts,’ served admirably to expose to me the profound antipathy of this man whom I had once so blindly overestimated.  He wrote that one of the first things he had done was to have a copy of the score made for the orchestra with the ‘cuts’ introduced by Conductor Rietz for the Leipzig performance, and that it would consequently be a tiresome business to put back all the passages which I wished to have restored.  He regarded my request in this particular as merely malicious.  I now remembered that the only performance of Lohengrin, which had been taken off almost immediately on account of its complete failure, was the one in Leipzig produced by Conductor Rietz.  Devrient, regarding Rietz as Mendelssohn’s successor and the most solid musician of ’modern times,’ had concluded that this mutilation of my work was a suitable one for production in Karlsruhe.  But I shuddered at the misguided light in which I had so long persisted in regarding this man.  I informed him briefly of my indignation and of my decision to have nothing to do with Lohengrin in Karlsruhe.  I also expressed my intention to make my excuses to the Grand Duke at a suitable time.  Soon after this I heard that Lohengrin was, after all, to be produced in Karlsruhe in the usual way, and that the newly wedded Schnorrs had been specially engaged for it.  A great longing at last filled me to make the acquaintance of Schnorr and his achievements.  Without announcing my intentions, I travelled to Karlsruhe, obtained a ticket through Kaliwoda, and heedless of all else went to the performance.  In my published Memoirs I have described more accurately the impressions I received on this occasion, more particularly of