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siasm, which I am afraid you never reciprocated, for I must have been a very wild, untidy little savage in those days, and it was your encouragement which first made me believe in myself and in my future career. Alas! alas! . . . .

“You must not ask me for my first experiences in England—they would bore you to death if taken en masse; but on the whole the first five or six years were fairly happy ones. My good old aunt had some friends in high musical places, and the experts whom she consulted took an encouraging view of my voice. I had but little to unlearn; my poor old father had grounded me fairly well, and ‘my upper register was excellent,’ as Professor Piper used to say. The professor was our teacher, tyrant, guide, philosopher, and friend in the Academy. He seemed to take a fancy to me from the first, and pushed me on at a great rate. I loved the work, hoped for success, and was strong enough to burn the candle at both ends, trusting to make a jump on to the stage before this little illumination gave out. The stage training was a nuisance, but I learned by degrees to ‘make an appearance,’ and to walk and move and speak as to the manner born, in the quaint life of the theatre. The trouble was that our financial supplies were irregular, to say the least of it.