“What was the next venture?”
“Nothing much more interesting. The summer after that season I visited Ems, where the De Reszkes were. One day they said: ‘We are going to Bayreuth to hear the music, don’t you want to go along?’
“I thought it over, and decided that I did. My mother and I packed up and departed. When I got there and saw those splendid performances I was entranced. It was perfectly beautiful. Everything was arranged after an ideal fashion. I had a great desire to sing there, and boasted to my mother that I would. When I came away I was fully determined to carry out that boast.”
“Could you speak German?”
“Not at all. I began, though, at once, to study it; and when I could talk it sufficiently I went to Bayreuth and saw Madame Wagner.”
THE KINDNESS OF FRAU WAGNER.
“Did you find her the imperious old lady she is said to be?”
“Not at all. She welcomed me most heartily; and when I told her that I had come to see if I could not sing there she seemed much pleased. She treated me like a daughter, explained all that she was trying to do, and gave me a world of encouragement. Finally I arranged to sing and create ‘Elsa’ after my own idea of it during the season following the one then approaching.”
“What did you do meanwhile?”