fluttered with
anxiety. The master's verdict was not very encouraging. When he had
heard her sing, "My good girl," he said, "you have no voice; or, I
should rather say, you had a voice, but are now on the verge of losing
it. Your organ is strained and worn out, and the only advice I can offer
you is to recommend you not to sing a note for three months. At the end
of that time come to me, and I'll see what I can do for you." This was
heart-breaking, but there was no appeal, and so, at the end of three
wearisome months, Jenny Lind returned to Garcia. He pronounced her voice
greatly strengthened by its rest. Under the Garcia method the young
Swedish singer's voice improved immensely, and, what is more, her
conception and grasp of musical method. The cadences and ornaments
composed by Jenny were in many cases considered worthy by the master of
being copied, and her progress in every way pleased Garcia, though he
never fancied she would achieve any great musical distinction. Another
pupil of Garcia's was a Mlle. Nissen, who, without much intellectuality,
had a robust, full-toned voice. Jenny Lind often said that it reduced
her to despair at times to hear the master hold up this lady as an
example, all the while she felt her own great superiority, the more
lofty quality of her ambition. Garcia would say: "If Jenny Lind had the
voice of Nissen, or the latter Lind's brains, one of them would become
the greatest singer in Europe. If Lind had more voice at her disposal,
nothing would prevent her from becoming the greatest of modern singers;
but, as it is, she must be content with singing second to many who will
not have half her genius." It is quite amusing to note how quickly this
dogmatic prophecy of the great maestro disproved itself.

After nearly a year under Garcia's tuition she was summoned home. The
Swedish musician who brought her the order to return to her duties
at the Stockholm Court Theatre, from which she had been absent by
permission, was a friend of Meyerbeer, and through him Jenny Lind
was introduced to the composer. Meyerbeer, unlike Garcia, promptly
recognized in her voice "one of the finest pearls in the world's chaplet
of song," and was determined to hear her under conditions which would
fully test the power and quality of so delicious an organ. He arranged
a full orchestral rehearsal, and Jenny Lind sang in the _salon_ of the
Grand Opera the three great scenes from "Robert le Diable," "Norma," and
"Der Frei