Beethoven repeatedly invited my mother to coffee, or, as the Viennese say, _zur Jause_; but my mother almost always declined, as his domestic arrangements did not appear altogether appetizing. My mother often said to my father that Beethoven’s habit of expectorating in the room, his neglected clothing and his extravagant behavior were not particularly attractive. My father always replied: “And yet he has a great deal of success, especially with women.” Beethoven often told my mother that he longed greatly for domestic happiness and much regretted that he had never married. Beethoven was fond of Stephan von Breuning’s son Gerhard, whom, because of his attachment to his father, he dubbed _Hosen-knopf_ (Trousers-button) and because of his lightness of foot _Ariel_. He once had the boy play for him, criticized the position of his hands and sent him Clementi’s Method as preferable to Czerny’s which the lad was using. There can be no doubt that the renewed association with von Breuning frequently turned his thoughts to his old home and his boyhood friends in the Rhine country, and his delight must have been keen when in this year, he received letters from Wegeler, whom he had not seen since he left Vienna twenty-eight years before, and his wife, who had been Eleonore von Breuning. They were tender letters, full of information about their family, each other, friends and relations--real home letters telling of births, marriages, careers and deaths. One would think that they ought to have been answered at once, but Beethoven did not find time or occasion to write a reply until the next year, despite this obvious challenge in Dr. von Wegeler’s letter: Why did you not avenge the honor of your mother when, in the Encyclopædia, and in France, you were set down as a love-child? The Englishman who tried to defend you gave the filth a cuff, as we say in Bonn, and let your mother carry you in her womb 30 years, since the King of Prussia, your alleged father, died already in 1740--an assertion which was altogether wrong since Frederick II ascended the throne in 1740 and did not die till 1786. Only your inborn dread of having anything but music of yours published is, probably, the cause of this culpable indolence. If you wish it I will set the world right in this matter. [Sidenote: THE LAST STRING QUARTETS]