"Don't they all send the boys out to walk in Germany then?"
"I suppose so. But how shall you like being locked up?"
"In the dark, sir, do you mean?"
"No, boy; to practise in a little cave of your own."
"What does make you call it a cave?"
"Because great treasures are hidden there for such as like the bore of grubbing them up. You have no idea, by the way, how much dirty work there is to do anything at all in music."
"I suppose you mean, to get at anything. But it cannot be worse than what people go through to get to heaven."
"If that is your notion, you are all right. I have taken some trouble to get you into this place, for the old gentleman is a whimsical one, and takes very few pupils now."
"Did you know him, sir, before you heard of him for me?"
"He taught me all I know, except what I taught myself, and that was preciously little. But that was before he came to Lorbeerstadt. I knew nothing about this place. Your favorite learned of him when he was your age, and long afterwards."