To become a great singer, a great artiste, means a life of self-denial.

Are you prepared for this ?" "But--but--" stammered Diana in astonishment.

"If my voice is not even pretty--if it is no good--" "_No good_ ?" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet with a rapidity of movement little short of marvellous in a man of his size and bulk.
"_Gran Dio_! No good, did you say?
But, my child, you haf a voice of gold--pure gold.

In three years of my training it will become the voice of the century.

Tchut! No good!" He pranced nimbly to the door and flung it open.
"Giulia! Giulia!" he shouted, and a minute later a fat, amiable-looking woman, whose likeness to Baroni proclaimed them brother and sister, came hurrying downstairs in answer to his call.