I asked her her age,
and she informed me in a month she would be sixteen years old. I asked
her if she would like to earn her own lessons. She looked at me
surprised at my proposition. Before her visit was over it was agreed
she should be accompanist for my students, who needed her services.
This was glorious news to her mother, who so greatly desired her to
sing but was unable to give her both branches at this time, and she
had also just pride that her daughter was able through her musical
knowledge to give herself the much longed for opportunity which had
come to her so unexpectedly. Everything was complete now, and the
lessons began at once.
I found in her a real student, a most attentive listener, a voice
small but clear and high. Later on in the development it proved very
elastic, nothing acceptable below middle C. A pure lyric soprano, it
was constantly developing higher in the tones. I often cautioned her
not to sing so high, it would not do, when she would reply, "I cannot
help it, it just goes there." I paid my closest attention to her for
the period of four years. In that time she had not only learned to
sing and play, but also studied harmony and languages. Latin and
German she studied in school, Italian in the studio with Professor
Arena, Spanish from her father, who is a linguist. With all this
colossal work for this young mind and her achievements in technic and
languages I was yet dissatisfied, for I had not yet received a
response that I had longed and hoped for while she was drinking in all
this vast amount of knowledge.
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