Every one was
afraid of him when he lost his temper and raged up and down the stage,
shouting what he would do to his enemy when he caught him. One day, I
remember, he was furious with the _Intendant_ because birthday honours
had been distributed by the Grand Duke, in the form of decorations, and
he had received none. He made sure that it was the _Intendant's_ spite
against him, but it was in reality, of course, his notorious way of
living that prevented his being decorated. He shouted that he would "buy
himself two cents' worth of soft soap and grease his back with it and
make the _Intendant_ climb up it!" Then that he would get him in the
woods and run his auto over him, and run it back and forth, and back and
forth, until there was nothing left but apple sauce! Finally the
Direction could stand him no longer, great actor as he was, and his
contract was broken on the pretext of his having been absent from the
town without leave. You are supposed not to go further than a certain
stated distance from the theatre without due notification and
permission. He left the place with his Baroness, and his return to it
was characteristic. The first time that Zeppelin's airship passed over
the town, he was in it, hanging out of the car, shouting and throwing
down postcards!

As _Siegfried_ in "Goetterdaemmerung," he left an ineffaceable
impression on me. I have never seen it equalled by any tenor. When he
gazes at _Bruennhilde's_ ring, and his memory fails to recall just what
it means to him, his puzzled look of baffled memory, the ray of
understanding that almost pierced his forgetfulness, all were suggested
in so tremendous a way that one saw inside his brain,--and all this
utterly without exaggerated mannerisms.

I seemed to find favour in his sight, and during the _Dalila_ rehearsals
he made hot love to me. In the performance, when _Dalila_ sinks into his
arms on the couch, he nearly upset me by saying fervently out loud:
"_Ach! endlich weiss man was est ist ein schoenes Weib im Arm zu
haben?_" ("Ah! at last one knows what it is to have a beautiful woman in
one's arms.") I considered this a distinct reflection on his adoring
Baroness, and withheld the signs of delight he no doubt expected. He
told me once, one only wish he had,--just to see my _Spinne_, or
_lingerie_ closet. One day, as we were all in the greenroom, during a
rehearsal, waiting our turn to be called to the stage, I saw S----'s
eyes transfixed with horror. Lo