"That to me, Signora! But beware, my bees may swarm!"
"I shall know how to protect myself against their sting."
"I doubt it; but I thank you--you accord me full liberty once more. I have longed for it, I showed consideration for your beauty, did any favour befall me in consequence? I showed consideration for your worldly fame, it dazzled me as it did the public. Worldly fame, like a soap-bubble it shall collapse. A circus in Barcelona, a Crystal Palace in England, to these may be added a café chantant in Moscow, and the magic is dissolved. Talent! What is talent? People possess it so long as it is believed in. Talent is a bill at sight, it must be redeemed. It is little enough to possess talent alone; a singer must cease to begin when her voice begins to cease. There you have a few specimens; how do you like the colour? It is of a brilliant lustre, brilliant! That will create a sensation!"
Giulia stood as if bewildered beneath the drizzling rain of these aphorisms. She kept her hands pressed convulsively upon the table.
"I can discover new stars," cried Spiegeler, "and transform them into falling ones. I have given the German stage two prime donne. I can create queens of the opera, but also hurl them to destruction. Nous verrons, Signora!"
Beate rusted in from the adjoining room.
Stamping with his crutches, the lame reporter left the boudoir.
"What have you done? Corpo di bacco!"
"I feel myself free and great as Italy's most promising actress, young Adelaide Ristori, when, as Mary Stuart, she plunged the knife into her enemy's bosom."
"Unbounded recklessness! What possessed you? We shall be obliged to bear the consequences."