To become a great
singer, a great artiste, means a life of self-denial. Are you prepared
for this?"
"But--but--" stammered Diana in astonishment. "If my voice is not even
pretty--if it is no good--"
"_No good_?" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet with a rapidity of
movement little short of marvellous in a man of his size and bulk.
"_Gran Dio_! No good, did you say? But, my child, you haf a voice of
gold--pure gold. In three years of my training it will become the voice
of the century. Tchut! No good!"
He pranced nimbly to the door and flung it open.
"Giulia! Giulia!" he shouted, and a minute later a fat, amiable-looking
woman, whose likeness to Baroni proclaimed them brother and sister, came
hurrying downstairs in answer to his call. "Signora Evanci, my sister,"
he said, nodding to Diana. "This, Giulia, is a new pupil, and I would
haf you hear her voice. It is magnificent--_epatant_! Open your mouth,
little singing-bird, once more. This time we will haf some scales."
Bewildered and excited, Diana sang again, Baroni testing the full compass
of her voice until quite suddenly he shut down the lid of the piano.
"It is enough," he said solemnly, and then, turning to Signora Evanci,
began talking to her in an excited jumble of English and Italian. Diana
caught broken phrases here and there.
"Of a quality superb! . . . And a beeg compass which will grow beeger
yet.
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