‘He asked me what he could do for me, and I related my plan to him, which he approved of. I said that if I had but a little capital I could earn a living for myself and my children. I would open a photographic atelier. My father was a photographer, and I am perfectly acquainted with everything belonging to the art.’ Sara suppressed a smile—this from an artist’s wife. ‘A very little practice, and I should succeed admirably. The money to start with remained the only difficulty.’
‘I see,’ said Sara, wondering more than ever what she could be supposed to have to do with it.
‘Perhaps you have heard, Fräulein, that Professor Wilhelmi, and some other gentlemen and ladies, have decided, out of their respect and love for my husband’s memory, to give an entertainment on my behalf of tableaux vivants, for which you know they are so celebrated here. They are to be given in the Malkasten Club, or, if that is not large enough, in the Rittersaal of the Tonhalle. They think by this means that they can realise the sum necessary. Oh, Fräulein Ford, I beg you to consent!’
‘Consent—to what, my dear Frau Goldmark?’ she asked, in bewilderment.
‘If you will take a part in the two principal pictures, the success is assured of the whole entertainment,’ was her breathless reply, while Frau Goldmark half rose from her chair and held out her hands towards Sara, flehend, as she herself would have said, in a theatrical manner.
‘I—oh, I am afraid it is impossible!’ said Sara, hastily.
‘Ah, do not say so, Miss Ford! Think what it means to me. There is no one else here who can do it as you would do it. The Herr Professor quite agreed with me. He gave me this note to bring to you.’
Saying which, she suddenly pulled a little note from the bosom of her dress, and gave it to Sara, who, astonished at the whole affair, read, in Wilhelmi’s hand:
‘Do, if you possibly can, give your consent to Frau Goldmark’s request, it is for a good cause; and, if my approval is anything to you, you have it to the full. ‘Wilhelmi.’
Here Avice, who had been listening intently, and who had just realised what it was all about, chimed in: