said she,
abruptly.

"What a strange man Herr von Francius is!" said I. "Is he clever?"

"Oh, very clever."

"At first I did not like him. Now I think I do, though."

She made no answer for a few minutes; then said:

"He is an excellent teacher."

CHAPTER IX.

HERR VON FRANCIUS.

When Miss Hallam heard from Anna Sartorius that my singing had evidently
struck Herr von Francius, and of his intended visit, she looked
pleased--so pleased that I was surprised.

He came the following afternoon, at the time he had specified. Now, in
the broad daylight, and apart from his official, professional manner, I
found the Herr Direktor still different from the man of last night, and
yet the same. He looked even younger now than on the estrade last night,
and quiet though his demeanor was, attuned to a gentlemanly calm and
evenness, there was still the one thing, the cool, hard glance left, to
unite him with the dark, somewhat sinister-looking personage who had
cast his eyes round our circle last night, and told us to sing as if we
were damned.

"Miss Hallam, this is Herr von Francius," said I. "He speaks English," I
added.

Von Francius glanced from her to me with a somewhat inquiring
expression.

Miss Hallam received him graciously, and they talked about all sorts of
trifles, while I sat by in seemly silence, till at last Miss Hallam
said:

"Can you give me any opinion upon Miss Wedderburn's voice?"

"Scarcely, until I have given it another trial. She seems to have had no
training."

"No, that is true," she said, and proceeded to inform him casually that
she wished me to have every advantage I could get from my stay in
Elberthal, and must put the matter into his hands. Von Francius looked
pleased.

For my part, I was deeply moved. Miss Hallam's generosity to one so
stupid and ignorant touched me nearly.

Von Francius, pausing a short time, at last said:

"I must try her voice again, as I remarked. Last night I was struck with
her sense of the dramatic point of what we were singing--a quality which
I do not too often find in my pupils. I think, _mein Fraeulein_, that
with care and study you might take a place on the stage."

"The stage!" I repeated, startled, and thinking of Courvoisier's words.

But von Francius had been reckoning without his host. When Miss Hallam
spoke of "putting the matter into his hands," she understood the words
in her own sense.

"The stage!" said she, with a slight shiver