"I once travelled in the same compartment as your father," said old Eissler, "at night time. We were both unable to sleep. He told me a great deal about you two--you and Felician I mean." "Really...." "For instance, that when you were a boy you had played one of your own compositions to some Italian _virtuoso_, and that he had foretold a great future for you." "Great future.... Great heavens, but it wasn't a virtuoso, Herr Eissler. It was a clergyman, from whom, as a matter of fact, I learned to play the organ." Eissler continued: "And in the evening, when your mother had gone to bed, you would often improvise for hours on end in the room." George nodded and sighed quietly. It seemed as though he had had much more talent at that time. "Work!" he thought ardently, "work!..." He looked up again. "Yes," he said humorously, "that is always the trouble, infant prodigies so seldom come to anything." "I hear you want to be a conductor, Baron." "Yes," replied George resolutely, "I am going to Germany next autumn. Perhaps as an accompanist first in the municipal theatre of some little town, just as it comes along." "But you would not have any objection to a Court theatre?" "Of course not. What makes you say that, Herr Eissler? if it is not a rude question." "I know quite well," said Eissler with a smile, as he dropped his monocle, "that you have not sought out my help, but I can quite appreciate on the other hand that you would not mind perhaps being able to get on without the intermediaryship of agents and others of that kind.... I don't mean because of the commissions." George remained cold. "When one has once decided to take up a theatrical career one knows at the same time all that one's bargaining for." "Do you know Count Malnitz by any chance?" inquired Eissler, quite unconcerned by George's air of worldly wisdom. "Malnitz! Do you mean Count Eberhard Malnitz, who had a suite performed a few years ago?" "Yes, I mean him." "I don't know him personally, and as for the suite...." With a wave of the hand Eissler dismissed the composer Malnitz. "He has been manager at Detmold since the beginning of this season," he then said. "That is why I asked you if you knew him. He is a great friend of mine of long standing. He used to live in Vienna. For the last ten or twelve years we have been meeting every year in Carlsbad or Ischl. This year we want to make a little Mediterranean trip at Easter. Will you allow me, my dear Baron, to take an opportunity of mentioning your name to him, and telling him something about your plans to be a conductor?" George hesitated to answer, and smiled politely. "Oh please don't regard my suggestion as officious, my dear Baron. If you don't wish it, of course I will sit tight." "You misunderstand my silence," replied George amiably, but not without _hauteur_; "but I really don't know...."