Strange, but he had not known it till he saw the two women together.

For once his nice calculations had ceased to run smoothly; there appeared now a knot in the thread for which he saw no untying.
"You do not sing now ?" asked Laura across the table.
"No," Hildegarde answered, "my voice is gone." "Oh, I am so sorry." "It does not matter.

I can hum a little to myself; there is yet some pleasure in that.

But in opera, no, never again.

Has not Mrs.
Coldfield told you?
No?
Imagine! One night in Dresden, in the middle of the aria, my voice broke miserably and I could not go on." "And her heart nearly broke with it," interposed Mrs.Coldfield, with the best intentions, nearer the truth than she knew.