Without Success
One evening Alfred Grünfeld, the piano virtuoso, was playing before the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. After the performance the Crown Prince patted Grünfeld’s shoulder saying, “Do you know, my friend, that we are, in a sense, colleagues?” Grünfeld bowed, but had to acknowledge that he really did not know how he came to the honor of being a colleague of his Royal Highness.
“Well, I will tell you,” said the Crown Prince. “I was, like yourself, a pupil of Kullak’s, but—now you must not give this away—the good Kullak wanted to make something of me, as he did of you, and he didn’t succeed.”