representative she explained her inability to accept the very
flattering terms by reason of the already signed St. Petersburg
contracts. Although there seemed no definite outcome from the interview,
the gentleman with whom it was held left her, as all did, charmed by her
sincerity, her enthusiasm, and her great generosity.

The following week Melba was indisposed, and the much-impressed
gentleman of the Metropolitan wrote to Katrine, asking if she would sing
for them in the great prima-donna's place.

She accepted the offer with small hesitation, asking no one's advice
about an unheralded debut. She was too great an artist to desire
anything but stern criticism, and if she could sing greatly, she
reasoned, the public would be quick enough to discover it. The opera to
be given was "Faust." Her costumes were quite ready by reason of her
Paris debut, and she went to the morning rehearsals with the same joy in
her work that she had known when studying with Josef.

About four of the afternoon, before the final rehearsal, it began to
snow persistently in small flakes which dropped evenly from a leaden
sky. Standing by the window, twisting the curtain-string unconsciously,
with her soul out in the storm, she became conscious of excited cries of
"Extra!" in the street below, and as though in accompaniment to them
there came an incessant ringing of the bell at the street door.

Nora being absent on some self-appointed business of her own, the maid
who had brought in the tea, and one of the very damp papers which the
boys were still crying below, left the room with some abruptness to see
what was demanded below and who was clamoring for admission.

Katrine, left alone, poured the tea herself, her eyes scanning the news
indifferently until they rested on some heavy black lines heading the
last column. Again and again she looked, hoping that the printing would
stay still, would stop seeming to dance up and down between the floor
and ceiling--stop long enough for her to get its dreadful import:

=REPORTED ASSIGNMENT OF FRANCIS RAVENEL!=
* * * * *
=Combined Attack Made on M.S. and R. Railroad!=
* * * * *
=Mr. Ravenel Dangerously Ill at the Savoy!=
* * * * *

Dangerously ill! Dangerously ill! Dangerously ill! The words began going
over and over in her brain, seeming to strike from within on her temples
in a kind