In his house I made the acquaintance of Heinrich Heine, and both of them joked good-humouredly over my extraordinary position, making even me laugh.  Laube felt himself compelled to talk seriously to me about my expectations of succeeding in Paris, as he saw that I treated my situation, based on such trivial hopes, with a humour that charmed him even against his better judgment.  He tried to think how he could help me without prejudicing my future.  With this object he wanted me to make a more or less plausible sketch of my future plans, so that on his approaching visit to our native land he might procure some help for me.  I happened just at that time to have come to an exceedingly promising understanding with the management of the Theatre de la Renaissance.  I thus seemed to have obtained a footing, and I thought it safe to assert, that if I were guaranteed the means of livelihood for six months, I could not fail within that period to accomplish something.  Laube promised to make this provision, and kept his word.  He induced one of his wealthy friends in Leipzig, and, following this example, my well-to-do relations, to provide me for six months with the necessary resources, to be paid in monthly instalments through Avenarius.

We therefore decided, as I have said, to leave our furnished apartments and take a flat for ourselves in the Rue du Helder.  My prudent, careful wife had suffered greatly on account of the careless and uncertain manner in which I had hitherto controlled our meagre resources, and in now undertaking the responsibility, she explained that she understood how to keep house more cheaply than we could do by living in furnished rooms and restaurants.  Success justified the step; the serious part of the question lay in the fact that we had to start housekeeping without any furniture of our own, and everything necessary for domestic purposes had to be procured, though we had not the wherewithal to get it.  In this matter Lehrs, who was well versed in the peculiarities of Parisian life, was able to advise us.  In his opinion the only compensation for the experiences we had undergone hitherto would be a success equivalent to my daring.  As I did not possess the resources to allow of long years of patient waiting for success in Paris, I must either count on extraordinary luck or renounce all my hopes forthwith.  The longed-for success must come within a year, or I should be ruined.  Therefore I must dare all, as befitted my name, for in my case he was not inclined to derive ‘Wagner’ [Footnote:  ‘Wagner’ in German means one who dares, also a Wagoner; and ‘Fuhrwerk’ means a carriage.—­Editor.] from Fuhrwerk.  I was to pay my rent, twelve hundred francs, in quarterly instalments; for the furniture and fittings, he recommended me, through his landlady, to a carpenter who provided everything that was necessary for what seemed to be a reasonable sum, also to be paid by instalments, all of which appeared very simple.  Lehrs maintained