I took Van Vechten about a bit the other night, Peter broke in. I think I forgot to tell you. We've had so much to talk about....
Clara interrupted the shadow of an anserine smile to nibble a pink cake. Her legs protruded at an odd angle and I caught myself looking at her thick ankles.
You're looking at my legs! she exclaimed. You mustn't do that! I have very ugly legs.
But they're very sympathetic! cried Peter. Don't you think they're sympathetic, Van Vechten?
I assured him that I did and we went on talking, a little constrainedly, I thought, about nothing in particular, until, at length, Peter asked Clara if she would sing again. Without waiting for a reply, he seated himself before the piano and began the prelude to Manon's air in the Cours la Reine scene and Clara, without rising, sang:
Je marche sur tous les chemins
Aussi bien qu'une souveraine;
On s'incline, on baise mes mains,
Car par la beauté je suis reine!
Now her voice had lost the larmoyante quality, which evidently was a part of her bag of tricks for more emotional song, but it had acquired a hard brilliancy which was even more disagreeable to the ear. She had also, I remarked, no great regard for the pitch and little, if any, expressiveness. Nevertheless, Peter wheeled around, after an accompaniment which was even less sympathetic to me than Clara's legs, to exclaim:
Superb! I want her to study Isolde.
Peter doesn't understand, explained Clara, that you must begin with the lighter parts. If I sang Isolde now I would have no voice in five years. Isolde will come later. I can sing Isolde after I have lost my voice. My first rôles will be Manon, Violetta, and Juliette. It's old stuff, perhaps, but it doesn't injure the voice, and the voice is my first consideration. Now I wouldn't sing Salome if they offered me 500 francs a night.
Did you hear about Adelina Patti? asked Peter. She is a good Catholic. She went to a performance of Salome at the Châtelet and while Destinn was osculating the head of Jochanaan she dropped to her knees in her loge and began to pray!