20) and "Mondbilder" (op.

21), both written for four-hand performance, also date from the winter of 1884-85, and the second piano concerto was begun.

The "Moon Pictures" of op.

21 ("The Hindoo Maiden," "Stork's Story," "In Tyrol," "The Swan," "Visit of the Bear"), after Hans Christian Andersen, were at first intended to form a miniature orchestral suite; but an opportunity arose to have them printed as piano duets, and the orchestral sketches were destroyed--a regrettable outcome, as it seems.
His pupils, he found, were scattered, and he gave himself up without restraint to the pleasures of creative writing.

These were days of quiet and deep happiness.