She achieved a certain feeling of security in the fact that she had
made her home with Baroni and his sister. Signora Evanci mothered her
and petted her and fussed over her, much as she did over Baroni
himself, and the old _maestro_, aware of the tangle of Diana's
matrimonial affairs, and ambitious for her artistic future, was likely
to do his utmost to avert a meeting between husband and wife--since
emotional crises are apt to impair the voice.
From Baroni's point of view, the happenings of life were chiefly of
importance in so far as they tended towards the perfecting of the
artiste.
"Love is good," he had said on one occasion. "No one can interpret
romantic music who has not loved. And a broken heart in the past, and
plenty of good food in the present--these may very well make a great
artiste. But a heart that _keeps on_ breaking, that is not permitted
to heal itself--no, that is not good. _A la fin_, the voice breaks
also."
Hence he regarded his favourite pupil with considerable anxiety. To
his experienced eye it was palpable that the happenings of her married
life had tried Diana's strength almost to breaking point, and that the
enthusiasm and energy with which, seeking an anodyne to pain, she had
flung herself into her work, would act either one way or the
other--would either finish the job, so that the frayed nerves gave way,
culminating in a serious breakdown of her health, or so fill her
horizon that the memories of the past gradually receded into
insignificance.
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