hand. "Oh, the time is nothing--she may have all she
wants. But I cannot teach her to sing."

"Might not come amiss if you made a musician of her, however," said Mr.
Thomas dryly.

"I have done my best. But I can only play with a voice, and this is not
a voice to be played with. I think she will be a musician, whatever
happens. She is not quick, but she is solid, real; not like these
others. My wife says that with that girl one swallow does not make a
summer."

Mr. Thomas laughed. "Tell Mrs. Harsanyi that her remark conveys
something to me. Don't let yourself get too much interested. Voices are
so often disappointing; especially women's voices. So much chance about
it, so many factors."

"Perhaps that is why they interest one. All the intelligence and talent
in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be
bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens."

Mr. Thomas smiled into Harsanyi's gleaming eye. "Why haven't you brought
her to sing for me?"

"I've been tempted to, but I knew you were driven to death, with this
tour confronting you."

"Oh, I can always find time to listen to a girl who has a voice, if she
means business. I'm sorry I'm leaving so soon. I could advise you better
if I had heard her. I can sometimes give a singer suggestions. I've
worked so much with them."

"You're the only conductor I know who is not snobbish about singers."
Harsanyi spoke warmly.

"Dear me, why should I be? They've learned from me, and I've learned
from them." As they rose, Thomas took the younger man affectionately by
the arm. "Tell me about that wife of yours. Is she well, and as lovely
as ever? And such fine children! Come to see me oftener, when I get
back. I miss it when you don't."

The two men left the Auditorium Building together. Harsanyi walked home.
Even a short talk with Thomas always stimulated him. As he walked he was
recalling an evening they once spent together in Cincinnati.

Harsanyi was the soloist at one of Thomas's concerts there, and after
the performance the conductor had taken him off to a RATHSKELLER where
there was excellent German cooking, and where the proprietor saw to it
that Thomas had the best wines procurable. Thomas had been working with
the great chorus of the Festival Association and was speaking of it with
enthusiasm when Harsanyi asked him how it was that he was able to feel
such an interest in choral directing and in voices generally. Th