During this time of labour I was visited one day, only a few months after my arrival, by a gentleman, Monsieur Guibert, a rich ' agent-de-change,' who had heard of me, and made me the following proposal. He had two sons, ten and twelve years of age, was extremely fond of music, his wife and only brother equally so, and he wished to form the taste of his boys and make them thoroughly acquainted with the best compositions, for which purpose he asked me to devote one evening every week to himself and his family, and play for them whatever I liked and as much as I liked. It reminded me of the evenings with Herr Elbers ; and M. Guibert adding a very handsome pecuniary inducement to his proposal, we soon agreed, and from that time for years I dined every Thursday at his table and revelled in music for hours afterwards. No strangers were admitted, and it was a delight to me to expound and make them feel the beauties of the various works we went through. Of course the sonatas of Beethoven were chiefly and diligently studied, but Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Weber, Dussek, Hummel, Clementi, and others were not neglected. I even played the arrangements of Beethoven's, Mozart's, and Haydn's symphonies ; in fact, there was hardly anything in the whole range of music capable of being rendered on the piano with which I did not get familiar by familiarising my friends with it. These seances, repeated so constantly for we only allowed a break of a few months in the summer were of immense advantage to myself, for there were many pieces I might have neglected but for the desire to increase our repertoire to the utmost. << less