“Oh, no,” replied Wolfgang, giving the pretty little archduchess a grateful look. “No, I do not think I have, but your Royal Highness, you are so good and kind to me that I will marry you if you are willing.”
Marie Antoinette received the marriage proposal quite pleasantly, and laughed over it. “Let us wait a bit, little one,” she graciously replied, shaking her curly head. “I will ask my mother at once, and see what she thinks of it.” Taking him by the hand, she went along with him until they were once more at the Empress’s dressing-room. Leading him to her, she said coquettishly, “Mother, Your Majesty, Wolfgangerl has offered to marry me.”
Father Mozart was so shocked at the boy’s boldness that he felt like sinking through the floor. Maria Theresa looked at the audacious little fellow with evident pleasure. “Well, well,” she said with a smile, “this is a great honor you have offered us, Wolfgangerl, but may I ask how you came to make such a flattering proposal to my daughter?”
“Certainly, Your Majesty,” replied Wolfgang, modestly and affectionately. “I was grateful to her little Royal Highness for being so kind to me when I slipped and fell. The Archduchess Elizabeth laughed at me, but Marie Antoinette helped me up, and I could not help saying what was uppermost in my heart.”
“Well, that is very nice of you, Wolfgangerl,” said the Empress. “A thankful heart is worth more than gold, and we should always be thankful; but as to this marriage proposal, we must consider it for a while, you are both so young.”
Father Mozart was happy that the event ended so well, and Wolfgang, perfectly contented, chatted again with the archduchesses until the family were kindly dismissed. They returned to their hotel, happy over the generosity of the good Empress, and loud in their praises of the powerful sovereign who had shown them such generosity and affection.
Chapter V
The Second Violin
Overloaded with attentions, honors, and distinctions, the Mozart family returned to Salzburg for a time and resumed the old quiet life. The journey to Vienna had been advantageous in many ways. Father Mozart brought back quite a little sum of gold; but of still greater value was the reputation which Wolfgang had so quickly acquired. His talent had been surprising from his infancy, and now his first introduction into the great world was in every way a success. His fame as a rising star of the first magnitude in the musical firmament was already beginning to spread all over Europe.
Wolfgang, young as he was, appreciated this, and it was a spur that urged him to attempt the highest artistic achievements. After the Vienna journey nothing but music had any attraction for him. He practised almost incessantly. The customary amusements of childhood no longer interested him. He was absorbed in a dominating passion—the passion of music.
It was noticeable, as well as curious, that Wolfgang in his earlier years, notwithstanding his love for music, had an irresistible aversion to the sound of metallic instruments, and particularly to the shrill tone of the trumpet. He revelled in the music of string instruments and the piano, like a butterfly among fragrant flowers, but the loud noise of trumpets and trombones seemed to scare him, and cause him actual pain. His father, of course, soon noticed this, and it caused him great anxiety. How could his son conduct great musical performances, in which the brasses were indispensable, if he did not succeed in overcoming this aversion? Remonstrance and reasoning alike were of no avail. As soon as he heard a trumpet, even in the distance, he would either run out of hearing or stop both his ears. His father decided to adopt vigorous measures, and one day asked a trumpeter to his room.[16]