In it I described how
solitary I had been, in my intellectual fight and endeavour, and
expressed my contentment at having found a brother in him.
XLVII.
Among the Danes, and there were not many of them, who frequently came to
see me at the hospital, I must mention the kind and tactful musician
Niels Ravnkilde, whom I had known when I was a child. He had been living
in Rome now for some twenty years. He was gentle and quiet, good-
looking, short of stature, modest and unpretending, too weak of
character not to be friends with everyone, but equipped with a natural
dignity. When a young music master in Copenhagen, he had fallen in love
with a young, wealthy girl, whose affections he succeeded in winning in
return, but he was turned out of the house by her harsh, purse-proud
father, and in desperation had left Denmark to settle down in Rome. As
his lady-love married soon after and became a contented wife and mother,
he remained where he was. He succeeded in making his way.
He gradually became a favourite teacher of music among the ladies of the
Roman aristocracy, who sometimes invited him to their country-houses in
the Summer. He was on a good footing with the native maestros most in
request, who quickly understood that the modest Dane was no dangerous
rival. Graceful as Ravnkilde was in his person, so he was in his art;
there was nothing grand about him.
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