Mrs.MacDowell and her son were not slow to avail themselves of this proposal, and the end of the year 1878 found them in Wiesbaden.

Here they met Heymann, who had just concluded a triumphantly successful _tournee_ of the European capitals.

They heard him play, and were impressed by his mastery and poetic feeling.
Heymann was not, however, to begin teaching at the Frankfort Conservatory until the following autumn, so MacDowell remained in Wiesbaden, studying composition and theory with the distinguished critic and teacher, Louis Ehlert, while his mother returned to America.
[Illustration: MACDOWELL AT EIGHTEEN (THE FIGURE AT THE EXTREME LEFT OF THE GROUP) AS A MEMBER OF RAFF'S CLASS AT THE FRANKFORT CONSERVATORY] "Ehlert," MacDowell has written, "was very kind to me, and when I asked him for 'lessons' he refused flatly, but said he would be glad for us to 'study together,' as he put it.

This rather staggered me, as my idea in leaving Paris was to get a severe and regenerating overhauling.

I worked hard all winter, however, and heard lots of new music at the _Cur Haus_, which was like manna in the desert after my long French famine.