On the whole I had wandered into doubtful musical bypaths; and I now withdrew from this first educational visit to a great European art centre in order to start on a cheap, but long and monotonous return journey to Bohemia, by stage-coach.  My next move was a visit to the house of Count Pachta, of whom I had pleasant recollections from my boyhood days.  His estate, Pravonin, was about eight miles from Prague.  Received in the kindest possible way by the old gentleman and his beautiful daughters, I enjoyed his delightful hospitality until late into the autumn.  A youth of nineteen, as I then was, with a fast-growing beard (for which my sisters had already prepared the young ladies by letter), the continual and close intimacy with such kind and pretty girls could hardly fail to make a strong impression on my imagination.  Jenny, the elder of the two, was slim, with black hair, blue eyes, and wonderfully noble features; the younger one, Auguste, was a little smaller, and stouter, with a magnificent complexion, fair hair, and brown eyes.  The natural and sisterly manner with which both girls treated me and conversed with me did not blind me to the fact that I was expected to fall in love with one or the other of them.  It amused them to see how embarrassed I got in my efforts to choose between them, and consequently they teased me tremendously.

Unfortunately, I did not act judiciously with regard to the daughters of my host:  in spite of their homely education, they belonged to a very aristocratic house, and consequently hesitated between the hope of marrying men of eminent position in their own sphere, and the necessity of choosing husbands amongst the higher middle classes, who could afford to keep them in comfort.  The shockingly poor, almost mediaeval, education of the Austrian so-called cavalier, made me rather despise the latter; the girls, too, had suffered from the same lack of proper training.  I soon noticed with disgust how little they knew about things artistic, and how much value they attached to superficial things.  However much I might try to interest them in those higher pursuits which had become necessary to me, they were incapable of appreciating them.  I advocated a complete change from the bad library novels, which represented their only reading, from the Italian operatic arias, sung by Auguste, and, last but not least, from the horsy, insipid cavaliers, who paid their court to both Jenny and her sister in the most coarse and offensive manner.  My zeal in this latter respect soon gave rise to great unpleasantness.  I became hard and insulting, harangued them about the French Revolution, and begged them with fatherly admonitions ’for the love of heaven’ to be content with well-educated middle-class men, and give up those impertinent suitors who could only harm their reputation.  The indignation provoked by my friendly advice I often had to ward off with the harshest retorts.  I never apologised, but tried by dint of real or feigned jealousy to get our friendship back on the old footing.  In this way, undecided, half in love and half angry, one cold November day I said good-bye to these pretty children.  I soon met the whole family again at Prague, where I made a long sojourn, without, however, staying at the Count’s residence.