not feel convinced of the depth of a love founded upon so short an acquaintance, and they were, besides, afraid of his becoming a Catholic, as his sister Louise had done.
Fanny, although she had perfect confidence in him, submitted without protest to the family decree, and the two were not even allowed to correspond. Her mother, however, wrote to him frequently, so that he did not lack news of his sweetheart; while she, in her turn, knew that she was not forgotten, for the young lover, when the pen was forbidden to him, turned to his old ally, the pencil. Beautiful drawings, from memory, of her four lovely children were constantly received by Madam Mendelssohn, whose heart could not fail to be softened by such pleasing homage. They were all addressed to her, none to her daughter, but in each picture Fanny held the post of honor, and it was her face that was most carefully and delicately elaborated; her dark eyes that gazed with the most lifelike expression from the paper. Wilhelm Hensel spent five years in Italy.
In 1825, Abraham Mendelssohn purchased the house and grounds known as No. 3 Leipsick Street. Here he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, and here, too, Fanny was married and lived until her death. The house was spacious and beautiful, with lofty ceilings and large windows. One room, in particular, so constructed as to overlook the garden, and opening by a series of three arches into an adjoining apartment, was of stately proportions, and peculiarly adapted to theatrical purposes. Ordinarily, it was Madam Mendelssohn's sitting-room, but, upon Christmas, birth-days, and other festive occasions, it was the scene of all kinds of joyous celebrations—songs, plays, tableaux, and operettas. The garden was still more attractive, being, as Madam Mendelssohn wrote to Hensel, "quite a park, with splendid trees, a field, grass-plots, and a delightful summer
