ose I already knew,
making about twelve in all, and ignored the singing-teacher proposition
altogether as I had formed the intention of going to coach with Jean de
Reszke. On these terms the contract was returned to me signed by the
director, and I was engaged.

CHAPTER VIII

MY ONE LONE IMPROPOSITION

"When I make my debut" was the phrase that I had heard so often on the
lips of my American fellow students. Each one had chosen her opera
house, and decided in which role she would dazzle a clamouring public.
Sometimes one more modest would choose Monte Carlo in preference to
Paris, or if she intended to make a career in Germany, she might
hesitate between the rival merits of Dresden and Berlin. But that the
theatre should be one of the half-dozen leading ones in the world, and
the role her favourite, were foregone conclusions before she left
America.

In this respect, I quite shattered the tradition of the prima donna, for
I sang my first part in a small provincial German opera house, at
twenty-four hours' notice, and it was one of those which I have least
pleasure in singing. I remember that a well-known American writer,
living in Paris, said patronizingly to my mother a propos of my first
appearance, "Let us hope that she will make a real debut later, for
this can hardly be called one, can it?" "Well, after all," answered
my mother, "who knows where most of the great singers of today made
their debuts?"

[Illustration: I CARMEN AS I USED TO DRESS IT]

Contemporary fiction is full of opera singing heroines who jump into
fame in a single night, like Minerva springing full armed from the head
of Jupiter. Well, perhaps some of them do so--but I have never met a
singer, even of the highest international reputation, who has not had
some dark checkers of disappointment in his career. All his clouds may
have had silver linings, but sometimes the silver gets mighty tarnished
before he succeeds in struggling through the cloud, and sometimes
another singer gets through first and steals the silver outright. I
cannot say that I have ever been in great danger morally on the stage,
but my courage, my nerve, has been sometimes severely threatened, and I
have needed to summon the most dogged determination to keep it from
failing altogether. I feel sure that all successful singers share my
experience in greater or less degree, especially those who have been
trained in foreign countries. Not all of them, by any means, hav