"If only I could get started, Miss Neugass, on the right track!" "I'll tell you what I'll do. When Auchinloss comes this winter I'll have him hear you. That may pave the way to something. He's the prince of them all. His judgment never fails. He's only stamped his approval on five or six, but he's never missed. They say he heard Paula Anchutz singing her baby to sleep one night as he happened to pass her cottage, and he rang her door bell." "Auchinloss discovered Paula Anchutz!" "He decided her greatness after a few bars. Some day I'll read you Millie's letter home about her audition in Vienna. After about six bars of the 'Jewel Song' he leaped up over the footlights, screamed at her, kissed her, drew up a chair, and began to plan out the entire campaign of her future, so rapidly that the poor child said everything was swinging in circles before her." Her eyes two flaming orbits, Lilly sat staring, her lips slightly open. "And that was the beginning." "Yes, that was the beginning of--everything," said Miss Neugass, with a twist on her lips. "Oh, I--Even to hear it thrills me so that I--Thrills me so! But what, Miss Neugass--what if he hadn't--" "That is where you must make up your mind to take your medicine. There's an article about him in this month's _Musical Gazette_. If he thinks you've the stuff great singers are made of, it's a repetition of his scene with Millie every time. But this article goes on to say, if he rubs his hands together and says, 'Very nice,' and walks off, that means he thinks you will probably make a better bookkeeper or baby dandler than you will a prima donna. Millie used to write that around the opera house in Vienna, when Auchinloss started rubbing his hands together after an audition, everybody used to have the smelling salts ready." "Miss Neugass--you've heard me practice. Tell me the truth! Do you think my ambition is bigger than my voice? Tell me as you would your sister." The veil of a pause hung between them, Miss Neugass unfolding her legs and letting them hang over the side of the bed, as if she would flee the moment. "Why, I'm no critic, Miss Parlow. All I inherit is some of my father's natural musical instinct." "You're evading me, like Ballman does! Tell me! You may save me as you saved yourself. Am I chasing a phantom?" "I swear to you I don't know. I like your voice. I think it has a beautiful rich quality. I agree with Ballman, it has fine timbre." "Timbre--I'm tired hearing that--" "That counts in voice almost as much as range." "No, no, don't evade. You think it lacks range?" "I don't know. It lacks something--as if--well, if you'll pardon my saying it, as if it didn't reach as far as your temperament could fling it." "That's it exactly! I feel that about myself in everything--almost as if--as if it would take another generation of me to complete me--if--if you get what I mean." "There is something in that."