The 4th of August, 1782, Mozart married Constanze Weber, before the arrival of his father's formal consent. He had been in love with her for some months, and in December of the year before he had written his father about her. "She is the martyr of the family.... She looks after everything in the house, and yet can never do right. She is not ugly, but she is far from being beautiful. Her whole beauty consists in her dark eyes and good figure. She is not intellectual, but she has common sense enough to fulfil her duties as a wife and mother. She is not inclined to extravagance; on the contrary, she is always badly dressed, for the little her mother can do is done for the two others, never for her. True, she likes to be neat and clean, but not smart; and almost all that a woman needs she can make for herself; she understands housekeeping, has the best heart in the world--she loves me and I love her--tell me if I could wish for a better wife?" The father was sorely vexed. He saw poverty and "starving brats." He disapproved of the Weber family. With reluctance he finally sent the parental blessing. The wedding was simple, and the supper was given by the Baroness von Waldstädten, a famous pianist, and a woman of unsavory reputation. The income of the newly-married couple was precarious and uncertain, and so it was until the divorce of death, but man and wife were very happy. They were young--Mozart was twenty-six and Constanze was about eighteen--and they took no thought of the morrow. The morning after the wedding the Abbé Stadler called upon them, and he was asked to breakfast. Constanze in her marriage dress made the fire and prepared the coffee, and with laughter they thus began their married life, without money and with a carelessness that bordered on recklessness. To Constanze even this pinched life was a relief, for she had long suffered from the intolerance of a drunken mother. Mozart's love for his wife was town talk. Kelly, the English tenor, in later years, spoke of "the passionate love" of the composer. He told her everything, even his faults and sins, and she was ever tender and faithful. She was not unmusical; in fact she played and sang, and was especially fond of fugues. She told him stories while he worked. She cut his meat for him at table. As she was not robust, he, in turn, was most careful of her health, and often denied himself that she might be more comfortable. There are German romances in existence that deal with alleged love episodes in the life of Mozart, and in which he is represented as often unfaithful to his wife. Grave historians have not thought it an unworthy task to examine the current scandals of his life in Vienna. It is true that the manners and customs of the Viennese were free and easy. It was an age of gallantry. It is not improbable that he was exposed to many temptations. At the same time the looseness of his life was grossly exaggerated, and specific charges that were made are now known to be legends.