第97章

``And then you can afford to take a little holiday, and fall in love.Love! Ah, it is a joyous pastime--for a holiday.Only for a holiday, mind you.I shall be there and I shall seize you and take you back to your art.''

In the following winter and summer Crossley disclosed why he had been sufficiently interested in grand opera to begin to back undeveloped voices.Crossley was one of those men who are never so practical as when they profess to be, and fancy themselves, impractical.

He became a grand-opera manager and organized for a season that would surpass in interest any New York had known.Thus it came about that on a March night Mildred made her debut.

The opera was ``Faust.'' As the three principal men singers were all expensive--the tenor alone, twelve hundred a night--Crossley put in a comparatively modestly salaried Marguerite.She was seized with a cold at the last moment, and Crossley ventured to substitute Mildred Gower.The Rivi system was still in force.She was ready--indeed, she was always ready, as Rivi herself had been.And within ten minutes of her coming forth from the wings, Mildred Gower had leaped from obscurity into fame.It happens so, often in the story books, the newly gloriously arrived one having been wholly unprepared, achieving by sheer force of genius.It occurs so, occasionally, in life--never when there is lack of preparation, never by force of unassisted genius, never by accident.Mildred succeeded because she had got ready to succeed.How could she have failed?

Perhaps you read the stories in the newspapers--how she had discovered herself possessed of a marvelous voice, how she had decided to use it in public, how she had coached for a part, had appeared, had become one of the world's few hundred great singers all in a single act of an opera.You read nothing about what she went through in developing a hopelessly uncertain and far from strong voice into one which, while not nearly so good as thousands of voices that are tried and cast aside, yet sufficed, with her will and her concentration back of it, to carry her to fame--and wealth.

That birdlike voice! So sweet and spontaneous, so true, so like the bird that ``sings of summer in full throated ease!'' No wonder the audience welcomed it with cheers on cheers.Greater voices they had heard, but none more natural--and that was Moldini.

He came to her dressing-room at the intermission.

He stretched out his arms, but emotion overcame him, and he dropped to a chair and sobbed and cried and laughed.She came and put her arms round him and kissed him.She was almost calm.The GREAT fear had seized her--Can I keep what I have won?

``I am a fool,'' cried Moldini.``I will agitate you.''

``Don't be afraid of that,'' said she.``I am nerv-ous, yes, horribly nervous.But you have taught me so that I could sing, no matter what was happening.''

It was true.And her body was like iron to the touch.

He looked at her, and though he knew her and had seen her train herself and had helped in it, he marveled.

``You are happy?'' he said eagerly.``Surely--yes, you MUST be happy.''

``More than that,'' answered she.``You'll have to find another word than happiness--something bigger and stronger and deeper.''

``Now you can have your holiday,'' laughed he.

``But''--with mock sternness--``in moderation! He must be an incident only.With those who win the high places, sex is an incident--a charming, necessary incident, but only an incident.He must not spoil your career.If you allowed that you would be like a mother who deserts her children for a lover.He must not touch your career!''

Mildred, giving the last touches to her costume before the glass, glanced merrily at Moldini by way of it.

``If he did touch it,'' said she, ``how long do you think he would last with me?''

Moldini paused half-way in his nod of approval, was stricken with silence and sadness.It would have been natural and proper for a man thus to put sex beneath the career.It was necessary for anyone who developed the strong character that compels success and holds it.But-- The Italian could not get away from tradition; woman was made for the pleasure of one man, not for herself and the world.

``You don't like that, maestro?'' said she, still observing him in the glass.

``No man would,'' said he, with returning cheerfulness.``It hurts man's vanity.And no woman would, either; you rebuke their laziness and their dependence!''

She laughed and rushed away to fresh triumphs.

End