Fischer describes Madame van Beethoven as a “handsome, slender person” and tells of her “rather tall, longish face, a nose somewhat bent (_gehöffelt_, in the dialect of Bonn), spare, earnest eyes.” Cäcilia Fischer could not recall that she had ever seen Madame van Beethoven laugh; “she was always serious.” Her life’s vicissitudes may have contributed to this disposition:--the early loss of her father, and of her first husband, and the death of her mother scarcely more than a year after her second marriage. It is difficult to form a conception of her character because of the paucity of information about her. Wegeler lays stress upon her piety and gentleness; her amiability and kindliness towards her family appear from all the reports; nevertheless, Fischer betrays the fact that she could be vehement in controversies with the other occupants of the house. “Madame van Beethoven,” Fischer continues, “was a clever woman; she could give converse and reply aptly, politely and modestly to high and low, and for this reason she was much liked and respected. She occupied herself with sewing and knitting. They led a righteous and peaceful married life, and paid their house-rent and baker’s bills promptly, quarterly, and on the day. She[10] was a good, a domestic woman, she knew how to give and also how to take in a manner that is becoming to all people of honest thoughts.” From this it is fair to assume that she strove to conduct her household judiciously and economically; whether or not this was always possible in view of the limited income, old Fischer does not seem to have been informed. She made the best she could of the weaknesses of her husband without having been able to influence him; her care for the children in externals was not wholly sufficient. Young Ludwig clung to her with a tender love, more than to the father, who was “only severe”; but there is nothing anywhere to indicate that she exerted an influence upon the emotional life and development of her son, and in respect of this no wrong will be done her if the lower order of her culture be taken into consideration. Nor must it be forgotten that in all probability she was naturally delicate and that her health was still further weakened by her domestic troubles and frequent accouchements. The “quiet, suffering woman,” as Madame Karth calls her, died in 1787 of consumption at the age of 40 years. Long years after in Vienna Beethoven was wont, when among his intimate friends, to speak of his “excellent” (_vortreffliche_) mother.[11]