Part 18 (1/2)

And the next morning I received from her this brief missive, which threw me into a wild condition of joyous expectancy: ”If you could meet me in the Church of St. Gilles at eleven o'clock this morning, I should like to have your advice upon a certain matter.--Rosa.”

Seventy-seven years elapsed before eleven o'clock.

St. Gilles is a large church in a small deserted square at the back of the town. I waited for Rosa in the western porch, and at five minutes past the hour she arrived, looking better in health, at once more composed and vivacious. We sat down in a corner at the far end of one of the aisles. Except ourselves and a couple of cleaners, there seemed to be no one in the church.

”You asked me yesterday about my engagements,” she began.

”Yes,” I said, ”and I had a reason. As a doctor, I will take leave to tell you that it is advisable for you to throw yourself into your work as soon as possible, and as completely as possible.” And I remembered the similar advice which, out of the plenitude of my youthful wisdom, I had offered to Alresca only a few days before.

”The fact is that I have signed a contract to sing 'Carmen' at the Paris Opera Comique in a fortnight's time. I have never sung the role there before, and I am, or rather I was, very anxious to do so. This morning I had a telegram from the manager urging me to go to Paris without delay for the rehearsals.”

”And are you going?”

”That is the question. I may tell you that one of my objects in calling on poor Alresca was to consult him about the point. The truth is, I am threatened with trouble if I appear at the Opera Comique, particularly in 'Carmen.' The whole matter is paltry beyond words, but really I am a little afraid.”

”May I hear the story?”

”You know Carlotta Deschamps, who always takes Carmen at the Comique?”

”I've heard her sing.”

”By the way, that is her half-sister, Marie Deschamps, who sings in your cousin's operas at the London Diana.”

”I have made the acquaintance of Marie--a harmless little thing!”

”Her half-sister isn't quite so harmless. She is the daughter of a Spanish mother, while Marie is the daughter of an English mother, a c.o.c.kney woman. As to Carlotta, when I was younger”--oh, the deliciously aged air with which this creature of twenty-three referred to her youth--”I was singing at the Opera Comique in Paris, where Carlotta was starring, and I had the misfortune to arouse her jealousy. She is frightfully jealous, and get worse as she gets older.

She swore to me that if I ever dared to appear at the Comique again she would have me killed. I laughed. I forgot the affair, but it happens that I never have sung at the Comique since that time. And now that I am not merely to appear at the Comique, but am going to sing 'Carmen' there, her own particular role, Deschamps is furious. I firmly believe she means harm. Twice she has written to me the most formidable threats. It seems strange that I should stand in awe of a woman like Carlotta Deschamps, but so it is. I am half-inclined to throw up the engagement.”

That a girl of Rosa's spirit should have hesitated for an instant about fulfilling her engagement showed most plainly, I thought, that she was not herself. I a.s.sured her that her fears were groundless, that we lived in the nineteenth century, and that Deschamps' fury would spend itself in nothing worse than threats. In the end she said she would reconsider the matter.

”Don't wait to reconsider,” I urged, ”but set off for Paris at once.

Go to-day. Act. It will do you good.”

”But there are a hundred things to be thought of first,” she said, laughing at my earnestness.

”For example?”

”Well, my jewels are with my London bankers.”

”Can't you sing without jewels?”

”Not in Paris. Who ever heard of such a thing?”

”You can write to your bankers to send them by registered post.”

”Post! They are worth thousands and thousands of pounds. I ought really to fetch them, but there would scarcely be time.”

”Let me bring them to you in Paris,” I said. ”Give me a letter to your bankers, and I will undertake to deliver the jewels safely into your hands.”