On one occasion I was guilty of a great breach of etiquette. Meyerbeer's son-in-law, a Baron of good lineage, was calling on me, and a correspondent from _The London Daily Telegraph_, whom I had met socially and not professionally, happened to be present. Although I knew from my foreign experiences that possibly it was hardly the correct thing to do, I, not unnaturally, presented them to each other. To my surprise the Baron became stiff and the young Englishman somewhat ill at ease. I must say, however, the Englishman carried it off better than the Baron did. When the Austrian had departed, my newspaper acquaintance told me that I had committed a social _faux pas_ in making them known to each other. Introductions are absolutely _taboo_ between titled persons and "commoners," as they are sternly called. A baron could not meet a newspaper man! As a case in point, an Englishman of very distinguished connections arrived in Vienna at the time of one of the Court balls. He applied at his Embassy for an invitation, but was told that such a thing would be quite impossible. Viennese etiquette was too rigid, etc. Therefore, he did not go to the ball. But it so chanced that, a little later, when he went to call on the British Ambassador, he mentioned, casually enough, that he had a courtesy title but never used it when travelling. "Why didn't you say so?" exclaimed the Ambassador. "I could have got you an invitation quite easily, if you had only explained that!" Even the opera was very official and imperial. The Court Theatre was a government house, and the manager of it an _Intendant_ and a rather grand person. In my time he was Baron Hoffman; and he and the Baroness asked me often to their home and placed boxes at the opera at my disposal, this last courtesy being one that the regular artists at the opera are never permitted to receive. The Imperial Opera House of Vienna is perhaps the most complete operatic organisation in existence and especially, at that time, was the company rich in fine _prime donne_. Mme. Materna was considered to be the greatest dramatic singer then living. Mlle. Bianchi was a marvellous _chanteuse légère_, the equal of Gerster. Mme. Ehn was the most poetical of _prime donne_ and not unlike Nilsson. Of Lucca's fame it is needless to speak again.