stly important.

The decent getting Their Royal Highnesses in and out of the hall I left
to the capable manager, to whom Princess Christian said as she passed,
"She ought to be singing in Covent Garden." I very soon was.

I was rather nervous at the beginning at Covent Garden. Most of the
others were so famous, and all of them so much older than I. However, I
soon got recognition and they were all very nice to me. I enjoyed
especially talking to Van Rooy. He told me all about the wonderful
armour he wore in the "Ring." Never have I seen his equal as the
_Wanderer_. As he himself said, the old line of singers, the giants, the
de Reszkes, Terninas, Lehmanns and Brandts, seemed to have died out. I
often look for the grand line, the dignity, the flowing, noble breadth
of gesture one saw in the older Wagnerian singers, but how often does
one see it now? Of course, my memories of them are those of a very young
girl, but I saw the same thing in Van Rooy, though his voice showed
wear, and the bigness of their impersonations is stamped indelibly on my
memory, dwarfing the lesser ones.

Nikisch came for the last few rehearsals. He took that raw,
English-sounding orchestra, with its unrelated sounds of blaring brass,
and rough strings, and unified and dignified it by his personality, his
work and his brain power till it produced what he would have--Wagner in
his glory. His gestures were like a sculptor's. My brother, who came to
stay with us, also noticed this. Nikisch seemed to sculpt the phrases
out of the air, and brought home again to us both the close relation
between the lines of music and the lines of noble sculpture. The
Parthenon freeze--is it not music? My brother says the Air of Bach is
absolutely one with the outlines of this masterpiece, just as pure,
noble and majestically simple, moving in slow, stately rhythm.

We gave the "Ring" three times and I sang the _Erdas_ and _Fricka_ and
_Waltrautes_. The latter in "Goetterdaemmerung" I enjoyed doing so much
with Nikisch. We only rehearsed it at the piano, and he said as he sat
down: "_Jetzt bin ich neugierig. Entweder kann die Waltraute
wunderschoen sein, oder sehr langweilig._" ("Now I am curious.
_Waltraute_ can either be very beautiful or very uninteresting.") He did
not find it _langweilig_ however.

I had one of my fits of depression I so often get after singing, (when I
feel I must leave the stage, I am so hopelessly bad, and nothing any one
can do or say chee