234.
TO FRAU VON STREICHER.
You see what servants are! [He had gone out and taken the key with him.] Such is housekeeping! So long as I am ill, I would fain be on a different footing with those around me; for dearly as I usually love solitude, it is painful to me now, finding it scarcely possible, while taking baths and medicine, to employ myself as usual,--to which is added the grievous prospect that I may perhaps never get better. I place no confidence in my present physician, who at length pronounces my malady to be disease of the lungs. I will consider about engaging a housekeeper. If I could only have the faintest hope, in this corrupt Austrian State, of finding an honest person, the arrangement would be easily made; but--but!! [He wishes to hire a piano and pay for it in advance; the tone to be as loud as possible, to suit his defective hearing.]
Perhaps you do not know, though I have not always had one of your pianos, that since 1809 I have invariably preferred yours.
It is peculiarly hard on me to be a burden on any one, being accustomed rather to serve others than to be served by them.
235.
TO FRAU VON STREICHER.
I can only say that I am better; I thought much of death during the past night, but such thoughts are familiar to me by day also.
236.
TO F. RIES,--LONDON.
Vienna, July 9, 1817.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--
The proposals in your esteemed letter of the 9th of June are very flattering, and my reply will show you how much I value them. Were it not for my unhappy infirmities, which entail both attendance and expense, particularly on a journey to a foreign country, I would unconditionally accept the offer of the Philharmonic Society. But place yourself in my position, and consider how many more obstacles I have to contend with than any other artist, and then judge whether my demands (which I now annex) are unreasonable. I beg you will convey my conditions to the Directors of the above Society, namely:--