Salome was startled and dismayed, but the words Miss Mainprice had just uttered had a restraining influence on her, and she did not oppose Juliet's wish as she would otherwise have done.
"If you really mean to call on Signor Lombardi, I had better go with you," was all she said.
Juliet made no objection to this, being, in truth, glad to have the protection of her sister's presence.
Salome quickly made herself ready, and they set out.
Fortunately they found the signor at the hotel, and he received them in his private sitting room. He had grown stouter and flabbier than before, and was more than ever conscious of his own importance. He was evidently astonished to see Juliet, and there was that in his manner of greeting her which caused her to colour deeply, and to feel profoundly thankful that Salome was with her. For she knew instinctively that he had heard of her leaving England with Algernon Chalcombe, and that he was regarding her with a kind of amused contempt. He addressed her in a lighter and more familiar manner than he had been wont to use.
"This is an unexpected pleasure, Miss Tracy. So kind of you to come and see me. And what do you think of this fascinating city of Paris? But you have come at the wrong season. You should have been here when the opera house was open, and everything in full swing. And how goes the singing?"
Annoyed and confused by the indefinable change she discerned in him, Juliet felt her self-possession deserting her. She wished she had not come. When he paused and looked at her smilingly for a response, she forcibly conquered her nervousness, and said with dignity, in a cold, high tone, unlike her own—
"Signor Lombardi, I have come to you now because I want you to be so good as to tell me exactly what steps I should take in order to have my voice thoroughly trained for singing in public."
"Your voice—thoroughly trained—for singing in public," he repeated slowly, with an air of amazement. "Do you mean that you aspire to be a public singer?"
"Yes," said Juliet, with some hesitation, "I wish it. I think there is nothing I should like better."