er he would have
stayed without it, I don't know.

The work on Napoleon was done: he had laboured over it in Rome during
the summer, and Margarita had been very sweet, refusing more than one
invitation (at Sue Paynter's earnest request) to stay with him. But it
was only too evident that she did not wholly wish to stay and that
such a situation could not last long. Herr M----l kept her interested,
and Seidl, whom he sent for to hear her practising for _Siegfried_,
was most enthusiastic about her and displayed his admiration a little
too strongly for our peace of mind. His was a developing, forcing
influence, and Margarita showed the effect of it wonderfully; he
inspired her to her best efforts, and Mme. M----i was terribly jealous
of him. Personally, I could not but feel that his undoubtedly great
influence upon her mind and methods represented one of his many
invaluable contributions to the musical history of America--but I
speak as an observer, merely, of an American artist, not as a husband!

Roger and he had what must be confessed was a quarrel (though the
newspaper accounts of a duel were, of course, absurd) over the
advisability of her singing privately for a young German princeling
whom Seidl was very anxious to honour--he was then introducing the
Wagnerian dramas into America and had not been long director of the
Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It all smoothed over and we agreed
to forget it, all of us, but Seidl's pride was hurt and Roger had done
what I had not seen him do for fifteen years--lost his temper badly.
He was not pleasant in a temper, old Roger, like all men of strong,
controlled natures, and Margarita learned a lesson that day that she
never forgot, I suppose. I believe if on the strength of that
impression he had carried her off bodily--flung her over his
saddle-bow, as it were, and ceased to respect her rights for
twenty-four hours, we should all have been spared much strain and
suffering. But he regretted his violence and told her so, which was
fatal, or so it seemed to me. There are occasions when not to take
advantage of a woman is to be unfair to her, and Margarita was very
much a woman.

Well, well, it's all over now, and we have no need to regret that we
did not try a different way. It may be we should have had to pay a
greater price--for nothing lacks its price-mark on life's counter,
more's the pity, and if we are deceived by long credit-accounts, the
more fools we!

CHAPT