as then
impossible in America, and tradition decreed that foreign singers with a
foreign reputation should be engaged for grand opera's holy of holies,
the shining exception being our own American Nordica, then in her prime.
I decided that Paris must be the next stepping-stone; but how?

To study in Paris meant a great deal of money, and my father's business
in Melrose, while prosperous enough for our home needs, could not meet
the strain of an expensive stay abroad. It was an understood thing that
when I did go, my father and mother should accompany me. The financial
problem, however, seemed almost an insurmountable one.

[Illustration: MANON]

[Illustration: AMICA]

[Illustration: NEDDA]

[Illustration: ELIZABETH]

[Illustration: MIMI]

But once more the element of luck--or Fate--intervened just at the most
critical moment. At one of the receptions given by Miss Thursby, at her
home in Gramercy Park, I had met a Mrs. Kimball, of Boston. She heard me
sing, and was interested in the story of my ambition to study abroad. I
told her, however, that although my father was seriously considering
selling his business in Melrose, we feared the proceeds would be
insufficient for the course of study that seemed necessary.

"I have a friend in Boston," said Mrs. Kimball, "who is interested in
music and perhaps she would arrange something if you sang for her. Will
you come to Boston and meet her?"

Would I? The prospect was too alluring. A very few days afterward I had
returned to Boston with my mother in response to a letter making an
appointment for me to meet Mrs. Bertram Webb.

Mrs. Webb was the widow of a former resident of Salem. She was then
stopping at her beautiful home in Boston, and I sang for her. I was
fortunate enough to enlist her immediate sympathy and interest, and, as
I was a minor, the necessary business formalities were concluded by my
parents in my behalf. My father sold his store in Melrose and realized
a sum sufficient to reduce materially the amount of the first loan we
had from Mrs. Webb. This sum, according to the terms of a written
contract drawn up by Mrs. Webb's lawyer and duly signed by my father and
mother as my legal guardians, was to be an indefinite amount, advanced
as required, and to be repaid at an indefinite date when my voice should
be a source of steady income. The only actual security given was that my
life was insured in Mrs. Webb's favor, so that in case of my death she
would