ith people of
other nationalities than our own. Paris is such a marvellous place for
development. As my brother said, he never knew when some one whose
opinion he must respect might not drop into the studio, and give his
work a searching inspection. The atmosphere of having to keep constantly
at your very best because of the rigid intellectual criticism you
encounter at every turn, is most stimulating.

Rembrandt Bugatti was a great friend of my brother's, of whom I think he
was really fond, and this was a priceless association for a young
student. Bugatti was a genius, unrivalled by any other man of his age,
and very few of any other age, and his tragic death is a great loss to
the art world. His growing deafness and his acute sensitiveness must
have made life impossible for him. His recollection of the happy years
spent in Antwerp, when he and my brother were well-known figures
there--wearing long, swinging, dark blue, Italian cavalry capes, smoking
eternal pipes and working all day in the open air in the Zoo--compared
to what the Germans have made of Belgium, proved too great a spiritual
burden for him.

CHAPTER XXII

ROYAL HUMOUR

During that summer Baron S---- died in Munich. This of course was a
great blow to me and I did not know what I could do about my contract. I
went to Berlin to see Herr Harder, who told me I must _gastieren_
according to contract in October, but as the new _Intendant_ was not to
come into office till November, no one could really engage me,
especially as a very exacting new musical director was coming from
Vienna later in the season, and they would both undoubtedly want to
choose their own first contralto.

However, I went and sang under trying circumstances, with a very sore
throat and a sinking heart. The colleagues thought I would be engaged,
but I did not see who was to do it, and as it turned out I was
right--and there _was_ no one to do it. This depressed me extremely, but
I resolved to return to Berlin, and devote the year to following up my
previous recital. As a matter of fact, this apparent blow turned out to
be all for the best, as so often happens, for otherwise I should have
been caught in Germany at the beginning of the war, and my career upset,
which happened to several other girls.

The concert field is a rich one in Europe and I had made a good
beginning. I booked a tour in Holland, through the kindly offices of
Bos, where I was as well received as I had bee