"Fledermaus," which I always afterwards wore with that gentleman's
severe court dress. Laurel wreaths and wreaths of heavy silvered leaves
were sent to me, with gold lettered inscriptions, and I kept them for
ages in my music room.

During the last winter in Darmstadt I went up to Berlin to give a
try-out recital. It was managed by the great Wolf Bureau, and my friend
Mr. Fernow at once took an interest in me, which continued as long as I
was in Germany. I heard of Coenraad von Bos, and wanted to have him play
for me. We rehearsed the day before the concert, and I soon found I had
made another real friend in Bos. He said afterwards, when he was told I
wanted just one rehearsal for a Berlin recital, he thought to himself I
must be either very bad or very good. The truth was I could not get a
longer leave of absence from the opera and so more than one rehearsal
was impossible. I have always adored rehearsing, especially for a
concert, with such an artist as Bos to play for me, and one of the
greatest joys of my life was preparing a program with Erich Wolf for a
later Berlin recital. To go back to my concert--Bos worked very hard
that evening to make it a success, calling up all of his musical friends
to tell them of his new find. It _was_ a great success and I have never
read such notices as I received from all the papers. They told me no
foreigner had ever had such unanimous and extraordinary praise for a
first recital, and Papa Fernow kissed me in the green room.

I should have immediately followed up that concert with two or three
more, but I was obliged to return to my duties, and so lost the
opportunity of reaping the reward of an unusual beginning.

They wanted me to sign on in Darmstadt, but I felt that I had sung the
repertoire faithfully for three years, and that I wanted more worlds to
conquer, and a bigger town to criticize my work.

I went to Munich to sing for Baron S----, who liked me and offered me a
contract, depending on the outcome of two _Gastspiele_, or guest
performances, to be absolved the following October, my contract then to
go into effect.

My farewell in Darmstadt was "Carmen" and the people _were_ good to me.
After the last curtain I left the stage for a minute, and when I came
back to take my calls the stage was filled from side to side with
flowers; they were banked and grouped all round me. The curtain then
went up and down innumerable times, till I felt like weeping at leaving
all the