In the hall the applause would not cease.
“They are calling for you,” said Dr. Fixstern. “The audience wants to see you again.”
Franka shook her head. “No, I will not go out again—I am not a prima donna!”
“But just hear, how they are clapping, how they are calling for you.”
“I beg of you, dear Doctor, go out and tell them that I have already left the hall.”
Dr. Fixstern did as she ordered.
“Are you very tired, Franka?” asked Frau Eleonore. “How do you feel?”
“How do I feel? Happy!”
This was the beginning of Franka’s career, and now followed a series of triumphs. The newspapers published long extracts from her addresses and enthusiastic criticisms of her skill in the art of elocution. A few days after her début she gave her second lecture, which again packed the great Music Hall to the last seat; then she spoke in the Workingmen’s Home, and here she kindled even more enthusiasm than before. Among the young women of Vienna there sprang up a regular Franka cult, her adherents called themselves “Frankistinnen”; as their badge they wore a violet pin. There was in all the bookshops a special display of her portraits. In the toy-shops Franka dolls were put on sale and were eagerly bought. The comic papers published caricatures of her. Karl Kraus made a feature of her in a Garlett number of “Die Fackel.” Herds of autograph hyenas came down upon her. An impresario offered her an engagement for America. The gramophone companies made her an offer to have her represented on a record. A fashionable tailor introduced the long, open Garlett sleeves. The pupils who attended the courses of instruction which Franka had established were designated by the nickname of the “Garlett girls.” And, worse than all, vaudeville theaters enriched their repertoires of topical songs with a Garlett stanza.
Franka shuddered under this tidal wave of popularity; it was almost mortifying to her. She had undertaken her work as a kind of vestal mission, and now it was accompanied by such noisy publicity. But like all sudden and exaggerated excitement, this also gradually subsided; yet the quiet and earnest effect continued and increased. She soon recovered, in the estimation of all, her standing as a powerful advocate and woman of irreproachable character. The Sielen relatives, to be sure, turned their backs on her. Adele and Albertine and their whole set completely vanished. It was not a severe blow to her.