stiff little bow for good night and went off down the hall to get his
hat. Oh, that wasn't like a doughboy, I'll admit. I went to the door
with him and we made a little conversation there for a minute or two just
to--take off the edge. That's when I found out where he'd been.

"Father had taken LaChaise into the drawing-room when I got back but I
don't believe either of them had said three words. They were waiting for
me. Dad led off by asking what he thought of March, and LaChaise told
him, though you could see that wasn't what was on his mind. He said March
had a very strong and original talent and that he believed he had operas
in him. There was one about finished that he was going to look at
to-morrow. Then he pulled up short and said it was Paula he wanted to
talk about.

"Dad caught that all right without waiting for me to translate it. What
he wanted to get at, right at the jump off, was whether Paula knew
LaChaise had come down to talk about her. Was he to consider Mr.
LaChaise her emissary? I took a chance on _émissaire_ for that and it
worked all right.

"Well, the Frenchman said, as cool as you please, that he was. Said he
wouldn't have ventured to intrude otherwise:--and dad froze to ice right
there. But LaChaise went on and spoke his piece just the same. He said
he'd come to-night to verify the enthusiastic reports he had heard of her
singing but that she had outdone them all. He said the voice itself was
unusual, of great power and of beautiful quality, adequate in range for
anything that could be expected of her. But he said that was only the
beginning of it. The important things were that she was a real musician
in the first place and a woman with real passions in the second.