one.--Now, try the
half-tone.--That's right, nothing difficult about it.--Now, pianissimo,
AH--AH. Now, swell it, AH--AH.--Again, follow my hand.--Now, carry it
down.--Anybody ever tell you anything about your breathing?"

"Mr. Larsen says I have an unusually long breath," Thea replied with
spirit.

Harsanyi smiled. "So you have, so you have. That was what I meant. Now,
once more; carry it up and then down, AH--AH." He put his hand back to
her throat and sat with his head bent, his one eye closed. He loved to
hear a big voice throb in a relaxed, natural throat, and he was thinking
that no one had ever felt this voice vibrate before. It was like a wild
bird that had flown into his studio on Middleton Street from goodness
knew how far! No one knew that it had come, or even that it existed;
least of all the strange, crude girl in whose throat it beat its
passionate wings. What a simple thing it was, he reflected; why had he
never guessed it before? Everything about her indicated it,--the big
mouth, the wide jaw and chin, the strong white teeth, the deep laugh.
The machine was so simple and strong, seemed to be so easily operated.
She sang from the bottom of herself. Her breath came from down where her
laugh came from, the deep laugh which Mrs. Harsanyi had once called "the
laugh of the people." A relaxed throat, a voice that lay on the breath,
that had never been forced off the breath; it rose and fell in the
air-column like the little balls which are put to shine in the jet of a
fountain. The voice did not thin as it went up; the upper tones were as
full and rich as the lower, produced in the same way and as
unconsciously, only with deeper breath.

At last Harsanyi threw back his head and rose. "You must be tired, Miss
Kronborg."

When she replied, she startled him; he had forgotten how hard and full
of burs her speaking voice was. "No," she said, "singing never tires
me."

Harsanyi pushed back his hair with a nervous hand. "I don't know much
about the voice, but I shall take liberties and teach you some good
songs. I think you have a very interesting voice."

"I'm glad if you like it. Good-night, Mr. Harsanyi." Thea went with Mrs.
Harsanyi to get her wraps.

When Mrs. Harsanyi came back to her husband, she found him walking
restlessly up and down the room.

"Don't you think her voice wonderful, dear?" she asked.

"I scarcely know what to think. All I really know about that girl is
that she tires me to death.