Tommy
gave her the note suggestively. If she was too dreadfully below pitch,
and had breath enough to hang on to the note so long that the audience
(always composed of invited guests) writhed obviously, Tommy would
sometimes drop a sheet of music on the floor and create a diversion,
always apologizing profusely for her clumsiness. The third patron was
a young baritone, who liked Miss Tucker's appearance on the platform
and had her whenever he didn't sing Schubert's "Erl Koenig," which
Tommy couldn't play. This was her most profitable engagement, but it
continued alas! for only three months, for the baritone wanted to
marry her, and she didn't like him because he was bald and his neck
was too fat. Also, she was afraid she would have to learn to play the
"Erl Koenig" properly.

All this time Tommy was longing to sing in public herself, and trying
to save money enough to take more lessons by way of preparation.

When she lost the baritone, who was really peevish at being rejected
after suiting his programmes to her capacities for a whole season,
Tommy conceived a new idea. She influenced Jessie Macleod, who had a
fine contralto, and two other girls with well-trained voices, to form
a quartette.

"We can't get anything to do separately; perhaps we can make a
pittance together," she said. "We'll do good simple things; our voices
blend well, and if we practice enough there's no reason why we
shouldn't sing beautifully."

"Singing beautifully is one thing and getting engagements is another,"
sighed Jessie Macleod.

"As if I didn't know that! We can't hope to be superior to other
quartettes, so we must be different--unusual, unique--I can't think
just how at the moment, but I will before we make our debut."

And she did, for Tommy was nothing if not fertile in ideas.

Every hour that the girls could spare in the month of October was
given to rehearsal, till the four fresh young voices were like one.
They had decided to give nothing but English songs, to sing entirely
from memory, and to make a specialty of good words well spoken. All
the selections but one or two were to be without accompaniment, and in
these Tommy would sit at the piano surrounded by the other three in a
little group.

Miss Guggenheim was to give them their first appearance, invite fifty
or sixty people, and serve tea. She kindly offered to sing some solos
herself, but Tommy, shuddering inwardly, said she thought it was
better that the quartette sh