ably naked
shoulders. Others were just dubby and high-necked, and brought
sandwiches in their pockets, feeling the holier and more Germanly
reverent in consequence.

* * * * *

It is a great help to be able to afford to have some one with you in
opera life. Home surroundings are the most conducive to good work, and
it is hard to make a home alone; but you do not absolutely _need_ any
one, if this is not possible. My "morals" were never in danger--no
"infamous proposals" were made to me by agent, conductor or director. In
my first engagement, one or two of the giddier members of the company
had affairs with young officers--in no case a flagrant scandal, as with
a married man. Their relations to each other in the theatre were all
that could be demanded. The most exaggeratedly correct behaviour was
exacted from me. One day in Metz, for example, we went for a walk in the
country with the lyric baritone, a nice little chap, who was a great
friend of ours. It was a lovely, frosty day in autumn, and we were
walking fast through a forest road, when we passed a carriage with the
very prim wife of an officer sitting in it. The next day, an
acquaintance of ours told us, as a joke, that the same woman had said
that afternoon to her, "I thought you told me that Fraeulein Howard was a
lady?" "So she is," said our friend. "Oh, no," said the other, "she
can't be. I saw her and her sister walking with one of the singers from
the theatre, and they were behaving very badly." "What were they doing?"
asked our friend. "They were all three holding on to his stick!" said
she, in a horrified tone!

I went abroad to learn my business and I learned it. There is much talk
about it not being necessary to go abroad to prepare oneself for an
operatic career, but the time has not yet come in America when the
student can find the same opportunity to practice, or work out _on the
stage_ her beginner's faults. In Europe you can do this in blissful
semi-obscurity. I hope and believe the time will come when a girl will
not have to go through all I went through in order to develop her
talent, but may do it in her own country. But the wonderfulness of
Europe for those whose eyes are open cannot yet be replaced by America,
and a real artist will surely flower more perfectly on that side of the
water.

To those who go I can only say that I hope they may have the tremendous
advantage of fairy god-parents, as I had, and perha