“Think so?” She gave him a sidelong glance and spoke with a certain gruff shyness which did not deceive anybody, and was not meant to deceive. The tone was equivalent to “Keep it up. I like it, but I’m awkward with it.”
Fred held her by the door and did keep it up, furiously, for full five minutes. She took it with some confusion, seeming all the while to be hesitating, to be arrested in her course and trying to pass him. But she did not really try to pass, and her color deepened. Fred spoke in German, and Archie caught from her an occasional Ja? So? muttered rather than spoken.
When they rejoined Landry and Dr. Archie, Fred took up his tea again. “I see you’re singing Venus Saturday night. Will they never let you have a chance at Elizabeth?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Not here. There are so many singers here, and they try us out in such a stingy way. Think of it, last year I came over in October, and it was the first of December before I went on at all! I’m often sorry I left Dresden.”
“Still,” Fred argued, “Dresden is limited.”
“Just so, and I’ve begun to sigh for those very limitations. In New York everything is impersonal. Your audience never knows its own mind, and its mind is never twice the same. I’d rather sing where the people are pig-headed and throw carrots at you if you don’t do it the way they like it. The house here is splendid, and the night audiences are exciting. I hate the matinees; like singing at a Kaffeklatsch.” She rose and turned on the lights.
“Ah!” Fred exclaimed, “why do you do that? That is a signal that tea is over.” He got up and drew out his gloves.
“Not at all. Shall you be here Saturday night?” She sat down on the piano bench and leaned her elbow back on the keyboard. “Necker sings Elizabeth. Make Dr. Archie go. Everything she sings is worth hearing.”
“But she’s failing so. The last time I heard her she had no voice at all. She is a poor vocalist!”
Thea cut him off. “She’s a great artist, whether she’s in voice or not, and she’s the only one here. If you want a big voice, you can take my Ortrude of last night; that’s big enough, and vulgar enough.”