."

"Indeed, and of what is she guilty?"

"Oh, nothing except that, being an Italian, she has sung in Munich and
Vienna to German audiences, and we think she ought to receive some
castigation for her unpatriotic conduct."

"I agree with you,--and now please tell me what I am to do."

"Take this whistle," said the leader. "At a signal to be given at the
conclusion of the air sung by Rosina, the noise will begin, and you will
have to join in."

"I shall be very glad to do so," replied the singer, and put the whistle
in her pocket.

In the evening the house was packed, every seat was occupied, and the
audience warmly applauded the opening numbers of the opera. In due
course Madame Alboni appeared, and at the point at which she was about
to address her tutor, a few of the conspirators began to make a
disturbance, not waiting for the signal.

Without showing any concern, Madame Alboni walked down to the
footlights, and holding up the whistle, which was hung to her neck by a
ribbon, she exclaimed: "Gentlemen, are you not a little before your
time? I thought we were not to commence whistling until after I had sung
the air."

For a moment a deathlike stillness prevailed. Then, suddenly, the house
broke into thunders of applause, which was led by the conspirators
themselves.

Alboni visited the United States in 1852, just after the visit of Jenny
Lind, and received what was considered a cordial welcome. Nevertheless
she is said to have expressed some disappointment. In 1853 she married
the Count of Pepoli, and soon after retired. She did not again sing in
public, except in 1871, when she sang the contralto part in Rossini's
Mass, a part which the composer had desired, before his death, that she
would take when it was produced.

In social life the Countess of Pepoli was as much the idol of her
friends as she had previously been of the public. In 1877 she married a
second time, taking Major Zieger for her husband. Her death took place
at the Ville d'Avray, Paris, in 1894.

For several years the favorite tenor on the French stage was Gustave
Hyppolite Roger, a man of amiable and benevolent disposition, who was
educated for the legal profession. He was born in 1815, at La Chapelle
St. Denis, Paris, and entered the Conservatoire in 1836, carrying off,
the following year, the first prizes for singing and comic opera. His
debut was made in February, 1838, and he remained at the Opera Comique
for ten years, after which he