We were told that the very poor used to steal this bedding
at night. Of course we were vaccinated, but it did not take. The last
performances of the season were abandoned, as every one was afraid of
crowded places, and I left for Berlin on business. While there my throat
became frightfully sore, and of course I thought, "Aha! I have it!" And
of course I didn't have it. I returned worn out to Paris and rested
there.

About this time I went first to Jean de Reszke. His beautiful house,
near the _Bois_, with its little theatre, was the scene of much
nervousness and struggles to become _prime donne_. The master opened my
eyes to the beauties of style. His Wagner, better than the best
Wagnerian singer I have ever heard, his French style, the wonderfully
Italian and yet manly interpretations he gave the Puccini and Verdi
roles, were all a marvellous inspiration to me. With a pupil he
considered intelligent he would take no end of trouble, and a "_Bien_"
from him was a jewel above price. The tales de Reszke pupils sometimes
tell me of the wonderful things he told them and predicted for them have
always amused me, because in all the time I have been in his studio I
have never heard anything like it.

I was so infatuated by my work with him, and so humbled at the vista of
endless effort it opened before me, before his ideas could be carried
out in every tone one sang, that I asked him one day if I should not
spend the next winter in his studio, and leave the stage for a year. He
thought it over seriously, and advised me to go on with the stage work,
for the routine I was getting was as valuable a teacher as he was. It
would have been a great privilege to have spent an entire year with him,
and if I could have afforded it, I should have done so.

CHAPTER XIV

DISCOURAGEMENTS THAT LEAD TO A COURT THEATRE

The second year of my first engagement was drawing to a close, and I was
much exercised over the next step. I wanted to try for one of the
_Hoftheaters_, not the very largest and most famous, but a place with a
good orchestra and carefully prepared productions. There seemed to be no
vacancy in just such a theatre, and my agent offered me a contract for a
great _Stadttheater_, probably the first municipal opera house in
Germany. Their contralto, who was a great favourite, had a contract for
a big Royal Opera, and they felt sure she would be engaged. With some
misgivings, I signed the _Vertrag_, and then began the lon