“I bowed my head at this, and was the more pleased, excellency, since my affairs at Sebenico had gone ill with me for some time past. ‘This priest,’ I said, ‘does not forget that I am an old man, and that poverty is a good friend of mine. If he has need of me, surely he will remember my right to a poor man’s wage.’
“‘Father,’ said I, ‘what service I can give shall be given from my heart for love of little Christine. It will fall heavily upon me to leave my business now, at this busy time, when——’
“‘I have thought of that,’ said he, ‘and have made provision against it. Here are notes for five hundred guldens. With this sum you will set out at once for Vienna, and there you will learn all that is to be known of Christine. Good or ill, you will keep nothing from me. They tell me that her husband was with her daily until this last month, but that he has now disappeared from the city, and there is no news of him. Go, then, and learn what you can of this. You will lose nothing by the journey. And if you can bring me intelligence of the man’s death, I promise you that you shall return to Sebenico no more.’
“‘Gladly will I go,’ cried I, ‘and the saints be my witness that no thought of myself shall find me loitering on the way. Blessed be God that I am to see my child again!’
“The same night, excellency, I set out for Travnik. In two days I was in Vienna.”
CHAPTER XX
LA PROVA
“I found Christine neither at the Café des Trois Mousquetaires nor at that address in the Singer Strasse which the priest had given me. The very question, put to Albert Dietz, the proprietor of the café, moved him to great mirth.
“‘It is very easy to see that you are a countryman,’ he said; ‘and I advise you to button up your pockets while you are in this city. It is three months since Mademoiselle Zlarin sang on our stage. You will find her at the Opera House, as all Vienna could have told you this month past.’
“‘Oh,’ cried I, ‘so she has become Mademoiselle Zlarin since we parted? And at the Opera! Per Baccho, you must want singers badly if you can find place for such as her. Was her husband with her, do you know?’
“He shrugged his shoulders impatiently.