“I am so much interested to know all about you that I could say at almost any hour where you are, and--up to a certain point--what you are doing. All I have observed myself, all I have heard of you from others--the good and the bad--delights me so much that I offer you my sincerest sympathy and interest. I am glad that in you the musician and the man are so completely and harmoniously blended. “There was a time when I earnestly desired your personal acquaintance; but now I feel the more you fascinate me, the more I shrink from knowing you. It seems to me I could not then talk to you as I do now, although if we met unexpectedly I could not behave to you as to a stranger. “At present I prefer to think of you from a distance, to hear you speak and to be at one with you in your music. I am really unhappy never to have had the opportunity of hearing _Francesca da Rimini_; I am impatient for the appearance of the pianoforte arrangement. “Forgive me all my effusions; they cannot be of any use to you; yet you will not regret that you have been able to infuse a little life--especially by such ideal ways and means--into one who, like myself, is so nearly at the end of her days as to be practically already dead. “Now one more ‘last request,’ Peter Ilich. There is one particular number in your _Oprichnik_ about which I am wildly enthusiastic. If it is possible, please arrange this for me as a funeral march for four hands (pianoforte). I am sending you the opera in which I have marked the passages I should like you to arrange. If my request is tiresome, do not hesitate to refuse; I shall be regretful, but not offended. If you agree to it, take your own time, because it will be an indulgence I have no right to expect. Will you allow me to have your arrangements published, and if so, should I apply to Jurgenson or Bessel? “Furthermore, allow me in future to drop all formalities of ‘Dear Sir,’ etc., in my letters to you; they are not in my style, and I shall be glad if you will write to me without any of this conventional politeness. You will not refuse me this favour? “Yours, with devotion and respect, “N. F. “P.S.--Do not forget to answer my first request.” _Tchaikovsky to N. F. von Meck._ “MOSCOW, _March_ 16_th_ (28_th_), 1877.