The Elector of Cologne seems to have acted upon the suggestion of the last sentence. In 1786 he sent Beethoven for a short visit to Vienna, the Mecca of all musicians. Here he had the privilege of playing before the great Mozart himself, who, becoming deeply interested in his masterly improvisation, turned to the company with the remark: “Look after him. He will some day make a great name in the world.” The visit so auspiciously begun was unfortunately cut short by the death of Beethoven’s mother, and he returned to Bonn to assume the responsibilities of his inefficient father in caring for his brothers and sisters. He now entered on a depressing and long-continued drudgery of teaching, which he seems to have endured courageously. His sterling character, as well as his genius, began to attract the attention of many of the wealthy nobles of Bonn, patrons of art; so that difficult as was this period of his life, it laid a solid foundation for his subsequent fortunes. Ludwig Nohl, in his “Beethoven Depicted by His Contemporaries,” gives an interesting sketch of Beethoven as he appeared at about this time to a young lady, afterwards Frau von Barnhard, who met him at the musical soirées of Prince Lichnowsky and Herr von Klüpfell. “Beethoven,” says Nohl, “thought so highly of the talents of this young girl that for several years he sent her regularly a copy of his new pianoforte compositions, as soon as they were printed. Unfortunately not one of the friendly or joking little letters, with which he accompanied his gifts, has been preserved: so many handsome Russian officers frequented Herr Klüpfell’s that the ugly Beethoven made no impression on the young lady. “Herr Klüpfell was very musical, and Beethoven went a great deal to his house, and often played the piano for hours, but always ‘without notes.’ To do this was then thought marvelous, and delighted every one. One day a well-known composer played one of his new compositions. When he began, Beethoven was sitting on the sofa; but he soon began to walk about, turn over music at the piano, and not to pay the least attention to the performance. Herr Klüpfell was annoyed, and commissioned a friend to tell him that his conduct was unbecoming, that a young and unknown man ought to show respect towards a senior composer of merit. From that moment Beethoven never set foot in Klüpfell’s house.