“M. Hallé is a young German pianist--tall, thin, and long-haired--who plays magnificently, and seems to get at music by instinct rather than by notes--that is to say, he is rather like you. Real talent, immense knowledge, perfect execution, are among the gifts we all recognise in him. “Hallé and Batta played Mendelssohn’s B flat sonata, then we had a chorus over our beer, then Beethoven’s A major sonata, of which the first movement excited us wildly, and the minuet and finale drove us to the verge of lunacy. “Oh you untiring vagabond! when will you return, once more to preside over our nights of music? “Between ourselves, you always had too many people at your gatherings--too much talk, too little listening. You, alone, wasted an amount of inspiration that was enough to turn one giddy, without all the rest of the folks in addition. “Do you remember that evening at Legouvé’s when--the lights put out--you played the C sharp minor sonata, we five lying in the dark on the floor? My tears and Legouvé’s, Schoelcher’s wondering respect, Goubeaux’s astonishment! Ah me! you were indeed sublime that night! “But to get back to news. “There is a glorious row toward between our Opera troupe and the Italian; they want to unite them in the Rue Le Pelletier. It will be rather a shock. Lablache against Levasseur, Rubini against Duprez, Tamburini against Dérivis, Grisi against Mdlle. Naudin and the whole lot against the big drum. “We mean to be there to pick up the dead and the dying. Lots of people find fault with the Opera orchestra, they say they do not keep in tune, that the right-hand side tends to get a quarter-tone higher than the left--which these gentlemen consider most unreasonable---- “‘You seem to suffer in silence,’ one of them said to me the other day. “‘I? I did not say I suffered at all,’ I replied. ‘First, because I never said a word, and secondly, because....’ “Sometimes when they are at their wit’s end they play _Don Giovanni_. If Mozart could come back to this world, he would tell them (like Molière’s president) that he would not have it _played_. “The other day, Ambroise Thomas, Morel, and I were saying we would give five hundred francs for a good performance of Spontini’s _Vestale_; that set us off--we know it by heart--and we went on singing it till midnight. “But we missed you for our accompaniments. “I am just pouring out news as it comes into my head. Hiller has sent me part of his _Romilda_ from Milan. One of our enemies wished to throw himself off the Vendome Column the other day. He gave the keeper forty francs to let him go up--then changed his mind and walked down again.