I see! What a strange beginning!" cried Nino.
"Not exactly that. It took a long time. I was obliged to leave my
home, for other reasons, and then I played from door to door, and from
town to town, for whatever coppers were thrown to me. I had never
heard any good music, and so I played the things that came into my
head. By and bye people would make me stay with them awhile, for my
music sake. But I never stayed long."
"Why not?"
"I cannot tell you now," said Benoni, looking grave and almost sad:
"it is a very long story. I have travelled a great deal, preferring a
life of adventure. But of late money has grown to be so important a
thing that I have given a series of great concerts, and have become
rich enough to play for my own pleasure. Besides, though I travel so
much, I like society, and I know many people everywhere. To-night, for
instance, though I have been in Rome only a week, I have been to a
dinner party, to the theatre, to a reception, and to a ball. Everybody
invites me as soon as I arrive. I am very popular,--and yet I am a
Jew," he added, laughing in an odd way.
"But you are a merry Jew," said Nino, laughing too, "besides being a
great genius. I do not wonder people invite you."
"It is better to be merry than sad," replied Benoni. "In the course of
a long life I have found out that."
"You do not look so very old," said Nino. "How old are you?"
"That is a rude question," said his host, laughing.
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