Too shrewd a phrase, by which the start is checked! It shuns bold acts and dallies to reflect, And, coldly calculating, thrusts away For some To-morrow’s sake the sure To-day; It brings the chance of happiness to naught For many, who too much upon the end have thought. Daring, beginning, lies in each man’s hand; The end no sage’s eye has ever scanned. It does not come by such a course at last As by the purblind reasoner was forecast. Therefore he sadly errs who on the end has thought, If to light up the Future’s darksome night he sought. To grow, to hold our ground, is life’s supreme affair. No anxious thought of perishing should enter there. The flower on fading does not think, The light does not in fear of quenching sink. God, when he planned the world, upon the end ne’er thought, For endless did he make the universe he wrought! He often sent me books from his library, and I wrote down for him my impressions regarding them; and so back and forth went messages, flowers, bonbons, and manuscripts,—a real flirtation! But it was wholly without erotic background; for the gallant diplomat might have been my grandfather. X RESIDENCE IN PARIS Singing lessons resumed · Maître Duprez · The school in the Rue Laval · In the house of the Princess Mingrelia · In the imperial box at the opera · Summer at Duprez’s place in the country · Return to Paris · Princess Salomé’s engagement · Prince Achille Murat · The wedding · With the young couple · Off to Baden-Baden At the beginning of the year 1867 we traveled to Paris. But, I remember, of the powerful impression which it must produce on every one to come for the first time to the mighty metropolis about which one has heard and read so much,—of this impression I felt very little, my mind was so full of the “one important thing.” Even the prospect of the pleasure of meeting the Dadiani family of Mingrelia again here did not come so close to me; the only thing that I could think about, that made me tremble with terror and excitement, was the question, How will Maître Duprez judge of my voice, what progress shall I make, and what shape will my artistic career take? The maestro owned a mansion on the Rue Laval, in which was a hall with a stage. Adjacent were small study-rooms in which the maestro and his son, Léon Duprez, gave private instruction. Every Friday the more advanced students gave arias and scenes from operas on the stage, and the little theater was filled with an audience of their friends and of strangers from outside. On the other side of the court was a small _hôtel_ used as a residence by the Duprez family, which consisted of the father and mother, the son and daughter-in-law.