Hoftheater_ have enviable concert
reputations as well, though in Germany the two professions are quite
separate, and concert singing is generally looked upon as the higher
branch of art. The critics are suspicious of the opera singer in
concert, to such an extent that I was advised, at my first Berlin
recital, to keep my real standing in the profession dark and present
myself without my title of _Hofopernsaengerin_. I suggested to my agent
that, as I was quite unknown in Berlin, it might be well to spend a
little money in extra advertising. "Advertising?" said he, "they will
think you are a soap!" So I sang unheralded except by the usual
half-inch in the daily papers. In contrast to the publicity campaigns
and press-agents of this country, let me give another instance of how
they did things in Germany before the war. On being engaged at this
_Hoftheater_, I thought I ought to let the public know it. I wrote my
agent, Herr Harder, asking him to spend 1000 marks ($250) for me in
judicious advertising of my engagement. He answered that there was no
way in which he could place the money to further my interests, and
returned it! The first contract which was offered me for a concert tour
in America, provided for $2,000 to be paid down for advertising before
the tour began.

CHAPTER XVI

THE ART OF MARIE MUELLE

One factor in my success was the beautiful wardrobe I was enabled to
have through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Frank S. Jones. The first
clothes I ordered from Marie Muelle in Paris, the summer before I went
to Metz, I left entirely to her. She showed me designs and had bolts of
wonderful shimmering silks unrolled for my inspection, and brought out
boxes of curious embroideries, which she kept for her special friends.
The _Amneris_ and _Dalila_ costumes she made me were very French of that
period of the _Comique_; pale pinks and greens and everything in long
wigs. I wore them a few seasons, but as I grew more in knowledge I did
not feel at all Egyptian in pink _crepe de Chine_, nor Syrian in pale
green. My brother Cecil and I love the Egyptian part of the Louvre, and
have spent hours there together. We found a fascinating bronze princess
of the right period, which we proceeded to try and copy for me for
_Amneris_.

[Illustration: DALILA AS I USED TO DRESS IT]

We were staying out of town at Giverny, the artist colony made famous by
Monet, Macmonnies, Friesieke, the A. B. Frost family and many artist
frie