"This charming Miss Donne sings, Logotheti."
"So I gathered while we were talking."
"No, you didn"t! You gathered no such thing! She told you that she took lessons, perhaps. But I tell you that she sings. It is quite different."
Madame Bonanni pushed away her plate, planted her large white elbows on the table and looked thoughtfully at Margaret. Logotheti looked at the young girl, too, for he knew very well what his old friend meant by the simple statement, slightly emphasised.
"Ah!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "I understand. I am at your service."
"What is it?" asked Margaret, blushing a little and turning from one to the other.
"Logotheti knows everybody," answered Madame Bonanni. "He is rich, immensely rich, fabulously rich, my dear. He is in the "high finance,"
in fact. It is disgusting, how rich he is, but it is sometimes useful.
He wants a theatre, a newspaper; he buys it and does what he likes with it. It makes no difference to him, for he always sells it again for more than he gave for it, and besides, it amuses him. You would not think it, but Logotheti is often dreadfully bored."
"Very often," a.s.sented the Greek, "but never when I am with you."
"Ah, bah! You say that! But why should I care? You always do what I want."
"Invariably."
"And out of pure friendship, too."
"The purest!" Logotheti uttered the two words with profound conviction.
"I never could induce this creature to make love to me," cried Madame Bonanni, turning to Margaret with a laugh. "It is incredible! And yet I love him--almost as well as plover"s eggs! It is true that if he made love to me, I should have him turned out of the house. But that makes no difference. It is one of the disappointments of my life that he doesn"t!"
"What I admire next to your genius, is your logic, dear lady," said Logotheti.
"Precisely. Now before you have your coffee you will give me your word of honour that Miss Donne shall have a triumph and an ovation at her _debut_, and an engagement to sing next season at the Opera."
"Really----" Margaret tried to protest.
"You know nothing about business," interrupted Madame Bonanni. "You are nothing but a child! These things are done in this way. Logotheti, give me your word of honour."
"Are you sure of the voice?" asked the Greek quietly.
"As sure as I am of my own."
"Very well. I give you my word. It is done."
"Good. I hate you, Logotheti, because you are so cautious, but you always do what you promise. You may have your coffee now! What name are you going to take, my dear?" she asked, turning to Margaret, who felt very uncomfortable. "The name is very important, you know, even when one has your genius."
"My genius!" exclaimed the young girl in confusion.
"I know what I am talking about," answered Madame Bonanni in a matter-of-fact tone. "You will get up on the morning of your _debut_ as little Miss Donne, n.o.body! You will go to bed as the great new soprano, famous! That is what you will do. Now don"t talk, but let me give you a name, and we will drink your health to it in a drop of that old white Chartreuse. You like that old white Chartreuse, Logotheti. You shall have none till you have found a name for Miss Donne."
"May I not keep my own?" Margaret asked timidly.
"No. It is an absurd name for the stage, my dear. All the people would make jokes about it. Of course you must be either Italian, or French, or German, or Hungarian, or Spanish. There is no great Italian soprano just now. I advise you to be an Italian. You are Signorina--Signorina what? Logotheti, do make haste! You know Italian."
"May I ask where you were born, Miss Donne?" inquired Logotheti.
"In Oxford. But what has that to do with it?"
"Translate into Italian: ox, "bove," ford, "guado." No, that won"t do"
"Certainly not!" cried Madame Bonanni. "Guado--guano! Fancy! Try again.
Think of a pretty Italian name. It must be very easy! Take an historical name, the name of a great family. Those people never object."
"Cordova is a fine name," observed Logotheti. "She may just as well be Spanish, after all. Margarita da Cordova. That sounds rather well."
"Yes. Do you like it, my dear?" asked Madame Bonanni.
"But I don"t know a word of Spanish----"
"What in the world has that to do with it? It is a good name. You may have your Chartreuse, Logotheti. Margarita da Cordova, the great Spanish soprano! Your health! You were born in the little town of Boveguado in Andalusia."
"Your father was the famous contrabandier Ramon da Cordova, who sang like an angel and played the guitar better than any one in Spain."
"Was there ever such a man?"
"No, of course not! And besides, he was stabbed in a love affair when you were a baby, so that it does not matter. You ought to be able to make something out of that for the papers, Logotheti. Carmen, don"t you know? Heavens, how romantic!"
Margaret had a vague idea that she was dreaming, that Madame Bonanni and Logotheti were not real people, and that she was going to waken in a few minutes. The heavy, middle-aged woman with the good-natured face and the painted cheeks could not possibly be the tragic Juliet, the terrible Tosca, the poor, mad, fluttering Lucia, whose marvellous voice had so often thrilled the young girl to the heart, in Paris and in London. It was either a dream or a cruel deception. Her own words sounded far away and unsteady when she was at last allowed to speak.
"I am sure I cannot sing in public in less than a year," she said. "You are very kind, but you are exaggerating my talent. I could never get through the whole opera well enough."
Madame Bonanni looked at her curiously for a moment, not at all certain that she was in earnest; but she saw that Margaret meant what she said.
There was no mistaking the troubled look in the girl"s eyes.
"I suppose you are not afraid to come here and sing before an impresario and three or four musicians, are you?" inquired the singer.
"No!" cried Margaret. "But that is different."
"Did you think that any manager would engage you, even for one night, merely on my word, my child? You will have to show what you can do. But I can tell you one thing, little Miss Donne!" A great, good-natured laugh rolled out before Madame Bonanni proceeded to state the one thing she could tell. "When you have sung the waltz song in _Romeo and Juliet_, and the duo in the fifth act, to four or five of the men who make a living out of us artists, you will be surprised at what happens afterwards! Those people will not risk their money for your handsome eyes, my dear! And they know their business, don"t they, Logotheti?"
He answered by speaking directly to Margaret.
"I think," he said quietly, "that you can have confidence in Madame Bonanni"s opinion."
"Listen to me," said the prima donna--suddenly, and for some unknown reason, rubbing all the rouge off her right cheek with the corner of her napkin and then inspecting curiously the colour that adhered to the linen--"listen to me! I sing day after to-morrow, for the last time before going to London. Come to my dressing-room after the second act.
I will have Schreiermeyer there, and we will make an appointment for the next day, and settle the matter at once. It"s understood, isn"t it?"
Margaret was delighted, for Logotheti"s quiet words had rea.s.sured her a little. Madame Bonanni rose suddenly, untying her napkin from her neck as she got up, and throwing it on the floor behind her. Before she had reached the door she yawned portentously.
"I always go to sleep when I have eaten," she said. "Find a cab for little Miss Donne, Logotheti--for the famous Senorita da Cordova!" She laughed sleepily, and waved her hand to Margaret.
"I don"t know how to thank you," the young girl began, but before she got any further Madame Bonanni had disappeared.