But any one who was able to get over the first impression would have discerned something good, and honest, and out of the common in this half-shattered creature.

A devoted admirer of Bach and Handel, a master of his art, gifted with a lively imagination and that boldness of conception which is only vouchsafed to the German race, Lemm might, in time--who knows ?--have taken rank with the great composers of his fatherland, had his life been different; but he was born under an unlucky star! He had written much in his life, and it had not been granted to him to see one of his compositions produced; he did not know how to set about things in the right way, to gain favour in the right place, and to make a push at the right moment.

A long, long time ago, his one friend and admirer, also a German and also poor, had published two of Lemm's sonatas at his own expense--the whole edition remained on the shelves of the music-shops; they disappeared without a trace, as though they had been thrown into a river by night.

At last Lemm had renounced everything; the years too did their work; his mind had grown hard and stiff, as his fingers had stiffened.

He lived alone in a little cottage not far from the Kalitin's house, with an old cook he had taken out of the poorhouse (he had never married).