"I've come to have my voice tried." Baroni picked up a memorandum book from his table, turning over the pages till he came to her name.
"Ach! I remember now.

Miss Waghorne--my old pupil sent you.

She has been teaching you, isn't it so ?" Diana nodded.
"Yes, I've had a few lessons from her, and she hoped that possibly you would take me as a pupil." It was out at last--the proposal which now, in the actual presence of the great man himself, seemed nothing less than a piece of stupendous presumption.
Signor Baroni's eyes roamed inquiringly over the face and figure of the girl before him--quite possibly querying as to whether or no she possessed the requisite physique for a singer.

Nevertheless, the great master was by no means proof against the argument of a pretty face.
There was a story told of him that, on one occasion, a girl with an exceptionally fine voice had been brought to him, some wealthy patroness having promised to defray the expenses of her training if Baroni would accept her as a pupil.

Unfortunately, the girl was distinctly plain, with a quite uninteresting plainness of the pasty, podgy description, and after he had heard her sing, the _maestro_, first dismissing her from the room, had turned to the lady who was prepared to stand sponsor for her, and had said, with an inimitable shrug of his massive shoulders:-- "The voice--it is all right.