stage door I
cannot describe. Curiously enough, this time the empty house did not
intimidate, but inspired me. Perhaps I felt the encouraging shadows of
the great ones hovering about me; at any rate, I sang as I believe I had
never sung before. To every one's amazement I dismissed the accompanist
whose laborious efforts were more of a hindrance than an aid to my
"audition," and, seating myself at the piano, I continued singing to my
own accompaniment, as was invariably my habit.

Mr. Grau was exceedingly pleased with the promise I showed and
especially predicted a brilliant future in operatic singing; but he
seconded my mother's sensibly planned course for me to study more
quietly, less in public view, and wait till a few years of hard work and
experience had passed over my ambitious little head. As a kind
afterthought he added, no doubt to soften the sting of my
disappointment: "Would you like to sing in one of our Sunday night
concerts?"

[Illustration: MAURICE GRAU]

"No, thank you, Mr. Grau," I replied. (No tame concert appearances after
my imagination had been dazzled by a possible debut in opera!)

"But it might be valuable to you to have your name on the billboards of
the Metropolitan Opera House," he urged good-naturedly.

"You will see it there some day," I replied with firm conviction.

He laughed, and certainly had no more reason to take me more seriously
than dozens of other young "hopefuls" who dreamed of some day storming
the Metropolitan doors.

Quite without my knowledge or consent, various reports of this and other
incidents in regard to my singing reached the newspapers, and I
experienced a distinct shock when I read in the New York "Herald" the
following amusing yet caustic criticism:--

If half of what Miss Geraldine Farrar's enthusiastic friends say of
her vocal and dramatic talents is true, then this sixteen-year-old
girl from Boston is the dramatic soprano for whom we have all been
waiting these many years. With all due respect to the young lady,
a lot of rubbish has been circulated as to her marvelous, not to
say miraculous, vocal gifts and accomplishments, and she cannot do
better than include, in the nightly prayers which all good girls
say, an earnest invocation to Heaven to preserve her from her
friends, that she may be saved from the results of overpraise.

That Miss Farrar has a wonderful gift of song has been attested by
so