Some days after he went again, and "played with his whole heart" three times at the request of the Elector, who sat by him "motionless"; a certain professor gave him a subject for a fugue. This seemed the surest way to the favour of the Elector. At Cannabich's instigation, as he tells his father (who counted on Cannabich's friendship, MANNHEIM. his interest being concerned on his daughter's account), he asked Count Savioli whether the Elector would not keep him there during the winter, and he would engage to give the children lessons. Cannabich promised to propose and support this plan to the Elector, but he must wait until after the gala days, and then the best results might be expected. But a thing like this must not be hurried, and patience would be required, as Wolfgang informs his father, and admonishes him not to lose time in speculations, which generally prove useless. In the meantime he had drawn on the banker for 150 gulden, "for the host would rather hear the jingle of money than of music."
This did not in any way please Wolfgang's father, who delivers a sharp reproof for his thoughtless expression as to the father's speculation being useless. "Gerechter Gott!" he writes, "you tell me not to speculate when I am in debt already on your account 450 florins, and you think you will put me in good humour by writing all sorts of absurd nonsense." He shows them how little use they have made of their time so far, and scolds them for not announcing their plans beforehand, so that proper preparations could be made. "I beg you, my dear Wolfgang, to be more thoughtful, and not to wait to write about things until they are past; otherwise all will go wrong." He points out how they have been living hitherto almost entirely on hope, leaving to him the care of the money which they required; he had not even received the accounts which his dear wife had promised him, and they had drawn money without giving him proper notice:—
A journey like this is no joke: you have not felt it hitherto. You must have something more serious in your head than nonsense: you have to foresee, to consider, to calculate, or else you will find yourself in a mess, without money—and no money means no friends, even if you give lessons a hundred times over, and compose sonatas, and play the fool every night from ten to twelve o'clock. Ask these friends of yours for credit! All the jokes will come to an end, and the most jocular countenance will turn grave on a sudden.
Hereupon followed a very vague money account from the wife (December 11, 1777):—
My dear Husband,—You wish to know what we have spent on our journey. We sent you Albert's bill, and the Augsburg one was thirty-eight florins. Wolfgang has told you that we were twenty-four florins short, but he has not included the expenses of the concert, which were sixteen florins, nor the hotel bill. So that when we came to Mannheim we had not more than sixty gulden, and if we had left in a fortnight, there would not have been much over. For travelling costs more, since things have grown so dear; it is not what it was—you would be surprised.
The irritated and somewhat despondent tone in which Wolfgang replied to his father's reproaches (November 20, 1777), shows that he felt their truth, and that the easy-going comfort of his life at Mannheim was disturbed by the first indications of his duty:—
If you consider the cause of my inaction to be laziness and want of care, then I can do nothing but thank you for your good opinion, and lament from my heart that my father does not know me better. I am not careless, I am only resigned to everything, and so can wait with patience and bear all, provided my honour and my good name of Mozart do not suffer. Well, if it must be, it must. But I pray you beforehand not to rejoice or to be sorry before it is time: for whatever happens it is all right if one is only healthy; happiness consists in the imagination (November 29, 1777).
But his father was not satisfied with all this moral philosophy, and calmly criticises the saying that happiness consists in imagination as being worthy only of a wild herb. He calls upon his son to realise the situation of being asked to pay, and having no money. "My dear Wolfgang, that is a saying fit for those who are satisfied with nothing."
The negotiations with the Elector continued, and Wolfgang sought to enlighten his father concerning Cannabich's intentions and behaviour (November 29, 1777):—